A teen drowned at a popular Cape beach after a rescue operation in which four of his friends were saved from the surf.
|||Cape Town - An 18-year-old youth from Lower Crossroads drowned at Mnandi Beach on Sunday after a rescue operation in which four of his friends were saved from the surf.
The teenager was swimming with friends when lifeguards noticed them struggling in the water, according to the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI).
The lifeguards went to help but when they could not find the fifth swimmer, a helicopter was sent to the area to help search for him.
NSRI spokesman Craig Lambinon said the other four, aged between 18 and 22, were uninjured.
“While a sea, air and shore search commenced, investigations were conducted to try to determine if the teenager had, in fact, left the water and gone home without informing anyone. During the search, the body of the teenager was found washed up in shallow surf and the body was recovered.”
The drowned teenager has not been named. People at the beach said his friends were taken to the police station for counselling soon after his body was found.
Natasha Fisher, who was on the beach at the time, said the search lasted for about an hour before the body washed up.
“I saw two guys going to pick the body up and put it on the shore and then the lifeguards came over and told the people to step away. He was dead already. “
Mnandi Beach lifesaving service administration officer Keith Matthews said eight lifeguards and and an additional six trainee lifeguards had been on duty.
“It is possible that he went into a riptide. We had between 5 000 and 7 000 people on the beach with as many as 1 000 being in the water. The lifeguards only guard a section of the beach and we try to tell people to swim in the designated area.”
“Among the other problems we had was people who swam too deep in the water and are not strong swimmers. I think if water safety was introduced in schools it could help save a lot of lives.”
Matthews appealed to the public to adhere to the warning signs on beaches and to listen to lifeguards.
Meanwhile, the body of a man that was last seen on Saturday at Kings Beach in Port Elizabeth was found on Sunday.
Friends of the 28-year-old said he had been collecting mussels at the time of his disappearance.
Lambinon said the body was found during a police unit scuba dive.
Police have opened inquest dockets into the drownings.
yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za
Cape Argus