Port Edward - An eight-year-old child drowned after apparently getting into difficulty while swimming in a lagoon at the Wild Coast casino on Saturday afternoon, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said.
NSRI Port Edward duty crew were activated shortly before 1:30pm on Saturday afternoon following reports from lifeguards of a drowning in progress at the lagoon at the Wild Coast Sun Casino New Waterpark in the Mzamba Lagoon, NSRI Port Edward station commander John Nicholas said.
"Our sea rescue jet-ski craft was towed to the scene and launched and NSRI Port Edward rescue swimmers, a police search and rescue unit, the SA Police Service, and Med-Evac ambulance services responded," he said.
On arrival on the scene, a lifeguard using a Malibu rescue board was conducting a search on the lagoon where it was confirmed that an eight-year-old boy from Mzamba was missing in the lagoon. The child had reportedly gone missing in the water while swimming.
An eight-year-old child drowned after getting into difficulty while swimming in the lagoon at the Wild Coast casino on Saturday afternoon. Picture: NSRI
Police search and rescue scuba divers searched and NSRI rescue swimmers assisted with free dive search efforts and the NSRI jet-ski was deployed to assist in a surface water search.
During an extensive search operation police search and rescue divers located and recovered the body of the child from the water, and sadly the child had been declared dead by paramedics. Police had opened an inquest docket. Condolences were conveyed to family and police were assisting the family, Nicholas said.