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.
A boy drowned in the pond in Henri Dunantpark in Eindhoven on Tuesday afternoon. He disappeared underwater while swimming. A police diving team took him out of the water some time later, RTL Nieuws reports.
The boy was found in the water around 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The exact age of the child is unclear, though according to RTL, he is a teenager. He was swimming with friends when he disappeared under water.
Attempts to resuscitate the boy were unsuccessful. His identity was not revealed, because the police still has to inform his family.
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.
Another two people drowned in the Netherlands on Sunday night. A 3-year-old girl died in a hospital shortly after she was found in a watery ditch in Leerdam. And a man drowned in the Oosterschelde after disappearing underwater while swimming.
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.
The Amsterdam Rescue Brigade previously called on Amsterdam district Nieuw-West to put a beach guard at Sloterplas, chairman Walter Weg said to the Telegraaf. A 5-year-old girl drowned in the Sloterplas on Sunday.
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.
An 8-year-old boy from Belgium drowned in a natural pool on the Flaasbloem campgrounds in in Chaam, Noord-Brabant on Wednesday afternoon. The boy was visiting family at the campsite, NU.nl reports.
Alarm was sounded on the campsite around 5:00 p.m. when the boy from Zonnebeke was nowhere to be found. Police, firefighters, paramedics and an air ambulance responded to the site, because there were concerns that the child ended up in the natural pool.
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.
On Thursday the court in Utrecht sentenced a lifeguard and two swim teachers to 60 hours of community service. They were found guilty of death through negligence in the drowning of a 9-year-old Syrian girl shortly after a swimming lesson at 't Gastland pool in Rhenen in September 2015. Two primary school teachers were acquitted, NU.nl reports.
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.
Over the past decades the number of child drownings in the Netherlands decreased significantly. Every year an average of 80 people drown in the Netherlands, nine of which are kids under the age of 15. In the 50's an annual average of between 400 and 500 people drowned, nearly 300 of which were children, according to figures Statistics Netherlands published on Tuesday.
