Enlarge image
Diver in the Rhine (June 17th): Search for missing girls
Photo: Roberto Pfeil / dpa
Two bodies were discovered over the weekend in an estuary of the Rhine in the Netherlands.
It is still unclear whether these are the 13 and 14 year old girls who were missing after a swimming accident in Duisburg.
The bodies were washed ashore in different places near Rossum and Gendt in the Waal, as reported by several media.
The Duisburg police only confirmed the find on Monday morning.
The authority did not provide any further information.
Large-scale search was unsuccessful
Last Wednesday, two girls aged 13 and 14 took a bath together with a 17-year-old friend near Duisburg in the Rhine.
Suddenly they were pulled under the water.
People on the bank who witnessed the disaster alerted the rescue workers.
The 17-year-old was initially saved, but later died in the hospital.
There was no trace of the other two girls, and a large-scale search for them with divers and helicopters was discontinued without result.
A few days before the three girls had a swimming accident, a 29-year-old had an accident very close to the scene of the accident in Rheinberg-Orsoy. The man had gone swimming in the river and after a few meters called for help, the police said, citing witnesses. He still tried to save himself on the bank, but then sank and was no longer seen. The body was found several kilometers away.
There were also numerous swimming accidents at quarry ponds and river banks in Germany at the weekend.
In Mannheim, for example, an eight-year-old girl drowned.
A rescue diver found the child under the surface of a lake late Saturday evening.
It died a little later in a clinic.
In Schleswig-Holstein, emergency services were looking for a missing girl in the Elbe until late at night.
The nine-year-old disappeared early Saturday evening in the water at the bathing area near Kollmar near Elmshorn.
According to the police, she was carried away by the suction.
According to figures from the German Life Saving Society (DLRG), at least 378 people drowned nationwide in 2020, 335 of them in inland waters.
47 people lost their lives in North Rhine-Westphalia.
wit / dpa
