Three girls drown in Tonga
Three girls, between the ages of 13 and 15, drowned while swimming in a dam at Dludluma trust in Tonga, Mpumalanga yesterday.
According to the police, an eyewitness told them the girls were swimming with two boys of the same age when tragedy struck. The two boys managed to rescue themselves.
Police spokesperson Leonard Hlathi says the girls disappeared under the water.
"Community members were summoned and managed to recover two bodies. The third body was retrieved by South African Police Service Divers and the families of the deceased were able to identify all the three bodies," says Hlathi.
Hlathi says the police are urging community members to look after their children.
"This is an unfortunate situation in which three young lives have been squashed in a blink of an eye which could have been avoided. During rainy times, please let us look after our children. The children themselves also have a responsibility to listen to their parents and the warning calls that we constantly make as authorities," says Hlathi.