It is a violent maritime phenomenon which reminds us that vigilance is still required in the face of the unpredictability of the oceans. Three swimmers died in a rogue wave and 17 others were seriously injured on a popular South African beach on Saturday, emergency services said.
“There was a rogue wave that swept people out to sea, three drowned and 17 were taken to hospital,” said Robert Mckenzie, spokesman for the KwaZulu Province Rescue Services. Native. He said one of the dead was a 7 or 8 year old child. The injured are “in serious or even critical condition”.
A “mass rescue effort”
The town hall of Durban clarified a little later that the three dead, including “a teenager”, had been “carried off by currents”, specifying that 35 members of the rescue services were mobilized in this “mass rescue effort”. Medical personnel were also taking care of the hundreds of people affected by the incident.
The phenomenon occurred around 5 p.m. at Bay of Plenty, one of Durban’s beaches. South Africa’s third-largest city has gradually reopened its beaches after they were closed due to high levels of E.coli from the municipal sewage system, badly damaged by flooding this year. These floods killed more than 400 people in April.