According to Binh Duong Provincial Police Department, a group of seven children aged between 14-15 went to swim in the Saigon River on Tuesday afternoon. They were stuck in a strong whirlpool and the four boys managed to escape and swam back to shore while the three girls were swept away.
Rescue forces were called and found the body of Nguyen Do Ngoc Hang late in the afternoon. Searches were carried out through the night and the bodies of Nguyen Do Ngoc Han and Nguyen Thi Nhu Y were found early Thursday morning. Hang and Han were twin sisters.
The children's families said that they were on summer holiday and went together for a swim while their parents were out for work.
Statistics from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs showed that some 2,000 children died from drowning in Vietnam every year. The number of rural child drownings was double that of urban areas, and 55 percent of drowned children were from families facing poverty.
