An 18-year-old young man
drowned
this Sunday, after going to bathe in the Mendoza River to cool off, in the midst of the longest heat wave in recent decades, which is passing through the Cuyo region.
The victim
Agustín Sebastián Ahumada
(18) was with other friends, in some cabins, located on Route 82, a few meters from the descent of the Mendoza River, in the town of
Cacheuta, Luján de Cuyo
, in Greater Mendoza.
Around 3:40 p.m. on Sunday, the Police headquarters received a
911 call
where a young man reported that his friend had gone into the river and
did not come out again
.
"He was
swept away by the current
," said the witness.
Police personnel and fire rescuers went to the place,
40 kilometers from the city of Mendoza
.
The search began in the area known as The Taking of the Spanish, upriver.
The rescue team
used drones
to follow the course of the river.
And he carried out a search on foot along the side of the riverbed, and another by raft, in the Los sapitos camping area and the Potrerillos dam.
As there were no traces of the young man, the headquarters of the Ministry of Security of Mendoza ordered the movement of the
police helicopter
to make an overflight and try to locate the body downstream.
At 6 p.m. this Sunday, the drones from Luján de Cuyo volunteer firefighters made it possible
to identify Agustín's body
.
He was at the height of the Cipolletti dam, so an operation was mounted to try to get him out of the place where he was stuck.
The body was removed with the help of divers and a rubber boat.
The criminal experts who acted in the rescue waited for the girlfriend of the drowned young man who was in the area because she was part of the group that had gone to spend the afternoon in the river.
The girlfriend was able to identify him.
The victim had
a Boca Juniors tattoo
on one of his forearms.
Mendoza: six deaths due to drowning
There are already six victims of drowning
in the rivers and streams of Mendoza this
tragic summer with high temperatures and greater melting of the water that comes down from the Andes mountains.
On the afternoon of Friday, February 2, the body of Facundo Agustín Medina,
14 years old
, was found in Luján de Cuyo.
The teenager disappeared a week ago, when he jumped into the Mendoza River and drowned.
Since Sunday, January 28, the boy was wanted after being dragged by the current while bathing in the river, in the Las Compuertas area.
It was a resident of the area who detected the presence of his body in the area of the tributary that is 300 meters west of Route 15, near a bridge.
Mendoza. Correspondent
D.S.