05-08-2025
Boy, 11, drowns after becoming stuck in muddy excavation pit
An 11-year-old Free State boy drowned at a construction site in Odendaalsrus while swimming with two friends on Saturday afternoon.
'Odendaalsrus police were summoned to a scene of a drowning at Kutlwanong. On arrival at the scene, members were informed that three boys aged between 10 and 11 were allegedly swimming inside an excavation filled with wastewater,' police spokesperson Sergeant Palesa Thabana said.
They became stuck in mud inside the pit.
'Two of the boys, aged 10, managed to get out, while the 11-year-old victim got stuck in the mud and ultimately drowned,' Thabana said.
'The Welkom SAPS diving unit, under the command of Sergeant Arno Cronje, was called to the scene. Together with Matjhabeng fire department members, they retrieved the deceased body from the sewage dump on Saturday evening at about 20:20.'
In an unrelated incident in November last year, Vista reported that a 14-year-old boy drowned in a quarry of water filled with sewage in Meloding, Virginia.
The boy's friends told the police that a group of them had been swimming in the quarry when one of them drowned.
Matjhabeng municipality employees were deployed to drain the sewage. The boy's body was found stuck in mud inside the quarry.
