Douala: Two drown in swimming bet.

Sources said the incident happened precisely at Valley Bessengue. This, it is reported, was after two days of heavy downpour. 

The two boys who perished in the incident are said to be between the ages of 18 and 20. They were said to be on holiday in Douala.

A source, said to have witnessed the incident, is quoted as having narrated that “...it started like a joke when one of them betted with the other that he could not swim better than him and they decided to give it a try in a nearby stream”.

The Guardian Post gathered that days before the gamble that went sour, it had rained heavily, causing the water level to increase.

An onlooker regretted that one of the boys first came out of the stream but died alongside the other when he dived into the waters again in an attempt to rescue his friend.

The lifeless body of one of the victims, The Guardian Post gathered, was recovered from the banks of the stream in a pile of trash by officers of the firefighting brigade. 

Meantime, we further gathered that the corpse of one of the boys is still being searched. 

The two days of heavy downpour in Douala, it should be said, equally brought down the wall of the University of Douala. Some other neighbourhoods were flooded.

Similarly, in the village of Famla, Bafoussam I in the West Region, a seven-year-old boy is said to have been washed away by runoff. 

The boy is said to have bent down to pick one of his slippers but did not survive the water currents as it rained heavily. A search is also said to be still on to recover the boy’s corpse. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3164 of Wednesday July 10, 2024