The lake where Nhật and Thông were found drowned. Photo infonet.vn |
HÀ TĨNH — Two children drowned in the central province of Hà Tĩnh yesterday afternoon. The case has prompted calls for extra classes on swimming in schools.
Võ Minh Nhật, 12, and Võ Minh Thông, 10, were found drowned in a lake in the province’s Hương Trà Commune in the mountainous Hương Khê District at around 5pm on Wednesday.
Locals commuting past the lake on a nearby path spotted two sets of school uniforms on the bank of the lake but did not see any children.
Out of concern, a few of them entered the water, where they discovered the bodies of the children. The children were taken to a local hospital but were declared dead on arrival.
Nearby residents said they had seen Nhật and Thông, who were cousins, head towards the lake after school.
Commune authorities assisted in transferring the bodies to the children’s families for funeral arrangements, according to Phan Thế Hòa, the commune chairman.
Experts in the country have called for more playgrounds to be built for children to play in after school due to the high percentage of fatal accidents involving children who were trying to entertain themselves.
A large number of legal and illegal extra classes have opened across the country, but few of them train children in survival skills. They teach almost the same subjects as the school curriculum to meet the desire for high scores among parents. — VNS