Photos: Tragedy as nine sixth-grade students drown in Vietnamese river

Nine sixth-grade student died in a central Vietnamese river on Friday afternoon, April 15th. The boy students, aged about 11, were classmates in Nghia Ha Junior High School in Quang Ngai City.

According to Than News, the students drowned while swimming in Tra Khuc River at around 2 p.m. A classmate by the name Tran Thi Ha Phuong said the nine students decided to swim in the river as the weather was too hot. 

 

 

She said she later saw two of them struggling, but thought that they were playing.

It took some time before Phuong and her friends realized that the boys disappeared in the river and cried for help.

Local people and search and rescue divers rushed to the scene, but it was too late.

A diver told Thanh News that the students' bodies "piling up on one another's" on the river bed, about 3 meters deep. All the bodies were recovered by 3.20 p.m.