A birthday celebration turns tragic as a 29-year-old boy identified as Francis drowned while swimming at the Pop Beach Club in the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State.
It was gathered that the late Francis and other 11 friends were holding a birthday hang out at about 12 pm on Thursday before the victims and three other friends left their colleagues at the celebration and went to the sea to swim.
An eyewitness who spoke with journalists on Sunday said that some of the lifeguards close to the sea raised the alarm after they sighted the four of them struggling to swim against the tide.
The eyewitness said, “The celebrant came with 11 friends including the victim around 12 pm. They were having fun when about four of them went to swim on the beach. After spending about 30 minutes swimming, we could no longer see them again. The next moment we saw them, they were already struggling in the water. That was when we alerted the lifeguards who went into the sea to rescue them. They were only able to rescue three of them.”
Efforts by the lifeguards to rescue the deceased victim were unsuccessful as he was already too weak to swim.
“After they searched for the remaining one and could not find him, the management went to the police station to report the incident. By the time a team of police arrived, the management had also gone to hire local divers who came to begin another round of search for the missing person. The search lasted till the evening but he was not found,” the eyewitness added.
A police source in the community said, “His body was washed to the shore of the sea on Saturday morning. And immediately people saw it, they alerted the management.”
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident.
He said, “It happened. The body was recovered two days after the incident and the corpse has been deposited in the morgue.”