Matheus Hamutenya 

KEETMANSHOOP - What was supposed to be a pleasant family retreat to the Orange River turned into tragedy as four girls drowned at Aussenkehr on Sunday afternoon.

Four girls aged 13, 15, 16 and 17 went to the river with other family members and they moved to a different area to swim without the presence of elder family members and they seem to have disappeared into thin air moments later as they were nowhere to be found.

Detective Chief Inspector Coleen Brandt of the Namibian Police Force Crime Investigations Unit in the //Kharas Region confirmed the incident saying the girls seem to have moved to a deeper side of the river and drowned in the process.

“We suspect they were swimming and it was deep and were carried by waves, and only their shoes were found on the river banks when family members went to check on them, this is when they reported the case to the police,” she said

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She stated the police promptly started searching for the bodies of the four girls on Sunday, but only two bodies were discovered yesterday, with the other two yet to be found though police have continued searching.

“The river is very deep and the grass and reeds are making it difficult, but we are still busy searching for the other two bodies,” she indicated.

In a separate incident, two people died on the spot after the car they were traveling in swerved off the road and hit into a ditch alongside the Keetmanshoop- Grünau road.

Brandt said that the driver lost control and drove into the ditch and both the driver and passenger died on the spot before police arrived on the scene.