Three Vocational High School Students Drowning In Manggarai NTT, Found Dead

Evacuation of Victims (ANTARA)

Three students of SMK St. Mathilda Ruteng were found dead after drowning in the Wae Ces Dam, Karot Village, Langke Rembong District, Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province, Saturday.

"The three students were found dead by residents who were searching at the scene at the Wae Ces Dam," said Langke Rembong sub-district head Yohanes Emiliano Ndahur when contacted from Kupang, Saturday.

He said that after being found, the three victims, who were still in class X at SMK St. Mathilda Ruteng, were immediately evacuated by residents together with the TNI/Polri to the Ruteng Regional General Hospital (RSUD).

The three victims who died as a result of drowning in the Wae Ces Dam were Polce (17), Edmon (16) and San (16).

The incident began when seven students of St Mathilda Ruteng returned home from school to the Wae Ces Dam which was not far from the school location for bathing.

When they arrived at the location, two people threw themselves first into the Wae Ces Dam, but both of them did not appear on the surface of the water, so one victim followed two friends into the water and all of them did not appear on the surface of the water.

Seeing this, four other students who were at the scene ran to the school to report the incident to the teacher.

The teachers and residents immediately carried out a search effort by diving at the scene for two hours, but to no avail because it was not supported by adequate diving facilities.

A number of residents then took the initiative to call a resident from Lalong Village to perform traditional rituals at the scene and the results after 30 minutes after the ritual was carried out were found one victim drowned, and 40 minutes later two other victims were found dead.