Four teenagers drown in Ba Ria-Vung Tau

Four children drowned in rivers in the southern provinces of Ba Ria-Vung Tau this week.

According to local authorities in Xuyen Moc District, two 14-year-old students at Tan Lam Secondary School drowned while swimming with a group of friends at the Ray River.

Two 14-year-old students at Tan Lam Secondary School drowned while swimming with a group of friends at the Ray River.

A local man who was fishing in the river heard the calls for help from the students and ran to the river to find the victims. However, they were already dead.

Earlier on March 19, two other students, both aged 16, also drowned while bathing at the Da Bang Lake in Chau Duc District.

A report by local authorities said that 14 children died from drowning in Ba Ria-Vung Tau in 2022 and seven others have drowned since the beginning of this year.

A 2020 report by the Department of Child Affairs said drowning is one of the major causes of death of children aged 12-15 in Vietnam. The country records an average 2,000 drowning deaths every year, the highest in Southeast Asia.