Residents of the Galadimawa community around the suburbs of the Federal Capital Territory were thrown into mourning on Saturday when four children were discovered to have drowned in the Danko River.
The deceased, Jinkai Hakila, 10, Bridget Ibrahim, 11, Precious Ezra, 14 and Azumi Daniel, 16, together with other children were at the river for washing before the incident occurred, the PUNCH reports.
Some eyewitnesses said that the incident happened at about 11a.m. when the children were still washing in the river.
Miss Blessing Elisha, 14, an eye witness, said that they were together at the river washing while others were playing.
She said several efforts made to stop the children from playing in the water yielded no result before the incident.
“I actually did not see them entering the water because I was busy washing, suddenly I was called that three of them had entered the river.
“It was then I looked up and saw the fourth one going in and an attempt made to rescue her looked like I was getting drowned.
“Then I left her and ran to call for help,” she said.
Mr Alhassan Abdulwahab, one the first people that responded to the distress call, said it took about three hours to get their corpses out of the river.
He said the information gathered from other children at the scene showed that the youngest of the deceased, Hakila was the first to enter the river.
He said other children were drowned while attempting to rescue their colleague.
“We came to the scene of the incident immediately we got the information, and it took some time before we discovered their corpses because our nets were already in the river for fishing.
“It was after I pulled out my net with a very big fish in it that I saw the four corpses in the same area with their stomach not swollen,” Abdulwahab said.
The four corpses were buried by the river side in line with the tradition of the community.