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A 29-year-old fun-seeker identified simply as Francis has drowned while swimming at the Pop Beach Club in the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the incident happened on Thursday at about 12pm while the victim was holding a birthday hangout with his friends.
It was gathered that the late Francis and three others left their colleagues while the celebration was going on and went to the sea to swim.
An eyewitness told our correspondent on Sunday that some of the lifeguards close to the sea raised the alarm after they sighted the four of them struggling to swim against the tide.
The eyewitness said, “The celebrant came with 11 friends including the victim around 12 pm. They were having fun when about four of them went to swim in the beach. After spending about 30 minutes swimming, we could no longer see them again. The next moment we saw them, they were already struggling in the water. That was when we alerted the lifeguards who went into the sea to rescue them. They were only able to rescue three of them.”
Efforts by the lifeguards to rescue the deceased victim were unsuccessful as he was already too weak to swim.
“After they searched for the remaining one and could not find him, the management went to the police station to report the incident. By the time a team of police arrived, the management had also gone to hire local divers who came to begin another round of search for the missing person. The search lasted till the evening but he was not found,” the eyewitness added.
PUNCH Metro, however, gathered that the remains of the deceased were later found on Saturday.
A police source in the community said, “His body was washed to the shore of the sea on Saturday morning. And immediately people saw it, they alerted the management.”
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident.
He said, “It happened. The body was recovered two days after the incident and the corpse has been deposited in the morgue.”
