A 16-year-old boy from Makhaza passed away today after drowning at Muizenberg Beach.
Also read: Seven drownings recorded at Cape Town beaches since December
At 9:38am, the City of Cape Town’s (CoCT) water rescue network responded to a drowning alarm at the Zandvlei Estuary mouth in Muizenberg.
Archie Moberly, a British national living in Cape Town, was surfing at Muizenberg when children asked for help with two friends in distress further out in the surf line. Moberly paddled towards them where they were separated in the surf zone.
He successfully rescued a child aged around 12 or 13 onto his longboard, but another child in distress disappeared underwater before Moberly could reach him. Moberly, unable to locate the teenager, retreated towards the beach with the rescued child. The alarm had been raised at this stage.
Muizenberg lifeguards, NSRI Strandfontein, law enforcement, SAPS, EMS rescue squad, SAPS Water Policing and Dive Services, and the EMS/AMS Skymed rescue helicopter responded. The teenager was spotted submerged by the EMS/AMS Skymed rescue helicopter and recovered by a Lifesaving South Africa rescue swimmer.
Despite CPR efforts by EMS paramedics, a retired paramedic, a student paramedic, and lifeguards, the teenager was declared deceased on site.
‘NSRI, lifeguards, Police, Municipal Beach Authorities and the emergency services are appealing to coastal bathers around the entire coastline to only swim where and when lifeguards are on duty, swim in between the safer demarcated swimming zones that lifeguards post using their red and yellow flags.
‘The good samaritan, Archie Moberly, is commended for saving the life of the child that he rescued from the water.’
Also read:
Congested Cape Town beach sees fatal and near-fatal drowning incidents
Picture: NSRI / Facebook