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Free State police have reported at least nine drownings in the province, including the deaths of four people who perished when the driver of a car tried to pass through a flooded road in a rural part of the province.
Police spokesperson, Brigadier Motantsi Makhele, said all the incidents occurred in the past week in various places in the Free State.
He said two children aged 13 and 17 and two adults drowned at Rosendal when the driver attempted to drive through a flooded road. Makhele said the 13-year-old boy is still missing.
In another incident, a young pastor and a congregant drowned during a baptism ceremony in a river at Bothaville. “Their bodies were found by police divers kilometers away from the drowning scene,” he said.
Makhele said individual drowning incidents were reported in Senekal, Botshabelo, and on a farm at Oranjeville.
He said Free State police are urging people not to try and cross rivers while under the influence of alcohol while advising church groups to suspend activities in rivers and dams that are full or fast-flowing during recent heavy rains.
