child drownings

Tropical weather in the Netherlands on Tuesday sent many people to the water to cool down. This did not work out well for everyone. At least three people drowned while swimming on Tuesday.

A 14-year-old boy drowned while swimming in a pond in the Henri Dunantpark in Eindhoven on Tuesday afternoon. Police divers took his body out of the water around 2:00 p.m. Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

Dutch swimming union KNZB is calling for obligatory swimming lessons for asylum seekers, following the drowning of a 16-year-old Syrian boy in a swimming pool in Venlo on Monday. The union doesn't necessarily want every asylum seekers to get a swimming diploma, but "every child must get compulsory experience with water and swimming", Alice Schols of the KNZB said to RTL Nieuws.

Last year 86 people drowned in the Netherlands, three more than in 2015, according to Statistics Netherlands. Despite this slight increase, the number of drowning deaths in the country decreased over the past 20 years.

A 5-year-old girl drowned in the Sloterplas in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon, the police said in a statement.

Emergency services and bystanders launched a search for the little girl around 5:05 p.m., when her mother lost sight of her. After a short search, firefighters and divers pulled the girl out of the water. Attempts to resuscitate her were unsuccessful.

The police believe this was a fatal accident.

A 5-year-old boy drowned in Vleuten on Thursday night. The child snuck out of his home during an inattentive moment and ended up in a ditch, RTL Nieuws reports.

After a massive search, the boy was found in a ditch near his home around 10:00 p.m. Multiple attempts to resuscitate the child were unsuccessful. 

According to the police, there is no indication of a criminal offense.

Victim support was made available to the boy's family as well as other local residents, due to the enormous impact the child's drowning had on the community, according to the broadcaster. 

The body of a 13-year-old boy was pulled from the Waal river in Tiel on Thursday night. He disappeared under water while swimming with friends earlier that afternoon. The boy is the third person to drown in the Waal in five days.

The boy was reported missing in the water around 3:00 p.m., according to Omroep Gelderland. Divers from the fire department immediately launched a search for the boy, aided from the air by a police helicopter, but to no avail. A special team with sonar equipment found the body around 9:00 p.m.