News / National
Boy (5) drowns in irrigation dam
05 Aug 2014 at 08:44hrs | Views
A FIVE-YEAR-OLD boy from Zijena village under Chief Mataruse in Mberengwa drowned at an irrigation dam early on Saturday morning.
According to police, the boy was playing with his friends on the shore of the small village dam while their parents were watering their gardens close by.
It was alleged that the boy waded into the water as they played splashing water on each other with friends before slipping into deep waters.
The boy's mother Racheal Zhou said she was alerted by other kids' screams but it was too late.
"We heard the children screaming while we were busy in the garden and when we arrived with other villagers, he had drowned," Zhou said.
Some male villagers jumped into the dam to try and retrieve the boy's body, but aborted their attempts after an hour.Village head Tapuwa Hove said he suspected that a mermaid had a role in the drowning of the boy as his body was later discovered a few metres from where he had slipped.
"The dam has its own mysterious happenings and probably the boy was unfortunate to be killed by a merimaid," Hove said.
Police said the boy's body was taken to the Zvishavane District Hospital for a post-mortem and no foul play was suspected.
"The boy was very little and could not swim; investigations so far tells us that the kids were playing in the water without being attended to and unfortunately the deceased slipped to the deep end of the dam where he drowned," a Zvishavane police official said.
According to police, the boy was playing with his friends on the shore of the small village dam while their parents were watering their gardens close by.
It was alleged that the boy waded into the water as they played splashing water on each other with friends before slipping into deep waters.
The boy's mother Racheal Zhou said she was alerted by other kids' screams but it was too late.
Some male villagers jumped into the dam to try and retrieve the boy's body, but aborted their attempts after an hour.Village head Tapuwa Hove said he suspected that a mermaid had a role in the drowning of the boy as his body was later discovered a few metres from where he had slipped.
"The dam has its own mysterious happenings and probably the boy was unfortunate to be killed by a merimaid," Hove said.
Police said the boy's body was taken to the Zvishavane District Hospital for a post-mortem and no foul play was suspected.
"The boy was very little and could not swim; investigations so far tells us that the kids were playing in the water without being attended to and unfortunately the deceased slipped to the deep end of the dam where he drowned," a Zvishavane police official said.
Source - Southern Eye
