Four friends drown at Karachi's Hawke’s Bay beach

Rescuers manage to save fifth friend

KARACHI:

Four young friends drowned while another was rescued from the city’s Hawke’s Bay beach on Sunday.

A group of friends went to the Hawke’ Bay for a picnic and stayed the night on Saturday.

“After staying for a night, we had planned to go for a swim early next morning,” said the victims’ friend, Adnan Khan. “Everything was good until the high tide which drowned two of my friends ... they were already at a distance.”

When they saw their friends struggling in the water, three others jumped in to rescue them. Unfortunately, they also fell victim to the tide. “We were helpless. We were unable to do anything for them,” said another friend, Muhammad Fahad. “Finally, we found rescuers who helped us.”

The rescuers quickly reached the site, but by the time they arrived four people had already drowned. They, however, managed to recover bodies of all four. “We recovered them in three phases, two each in the first two phases and the fifth youngster in the third phase,” explained a rescuer, Ashiq Ali.

“We were unable to save four of the boys but luckily saved the life of the fifth one as he was close to the beach.” The deceased were later identified as Danish, Syed Raza, Mishal and Zubair while Omar was the one who was rescued alive. All of the youngsters were believed to be between 17 and 25 years of age.



The victims were residents of Buffer Zone, Federal B Area and Nazimabad. The bodies were shifted to Civil Hospital, Karachi, for medico-legal formalities and later handed over to their families for burial.

Omar, who was also taken to Civil Hospital, Karachi, was later discharged after treatment.

Local police also reached the site and helped the rescuers in recovering the victims. Police officials said the victims drowned while bathing in the sea. No case was registered as it was an accident, said the police.



Drowning incidents are common in the summer season, when picnickers flock to the beaches to beat the soaring temperatures in the city. Despite a number of incidents of drowning, the authorities concerned have not taken any precautionary measures.

One of the biggest such incidents occurred in 2014 when over two dozen people drowned at the Clifton beach. They had gone to the beach for a picnic during Eid holidays.