Man drowns in Australia’s Canberra river
Canberra, Dec 30 (IANS/GURPUNEET SIDHU) A man has drowned in Canberra, taking Australia’s national drowning death toll for December to 32.
Police in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) on Monday confirmed the death of a 21-year-old man who went missing while swimming in a river in southern Canberra on Sunday evening.
Emergency services were called to the scene at about 6 p.m. local time on Sunday when the man failed to resurface, a police statement said.
A search was launched and his body was found in the water by divers from the Australian Federal Police shortly before 8 p.m.
A member of the public attempted to save the 21-year-old but could not find him in the water, Xinhua news agency reported quoting the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
It takes the number of people who have drowned across the country in December to 32, according to data from Royal Life Saving Australia.
The monthly drowning death toll is equal to that in the same period of 2023, but is slightly higher than the long-term average.
Royal Life Saving Australia earlier in December warned that the period between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day is the deadliest time of year for drowning in Australia.
It said that 26 per cent of all drowning deaths in the summer of 2023-24 occurred in that period.
Earlier on December 30, two men had died after falling in separate incidents at waterholes in the northeastern Australian state of Queensland.
The Queensland Police Service (QPS) said in a statement that emergency services had responded to reports that an 18-year-old man had fallen about 15 metres down an embankment of a river in Maudsland, 55 km south of Brisbane, at 6:40 p.m. local time on Sunday.
Paramedics had rendered medical assistance, but the QPS said the man succumbed to his injuries and was declared deceased at the scene.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on Monday that the 18-year-old had been using a rope swing from a rock embankment when he fell.
Hours earlier, on the same day, a 55-year-old man had died after he slipped and fell 30 meters from a waterfall in the Behana Gorge, over 1,300 km northwest of Brisbane.
The QPS said that emergency services had been called to Clamshell Falls, a popular swimming hole in the gorge, at 1:30 p.m. after the man was reported missing in the water.
He was located about an hour later following a search and rescue operation.
“Medical assistance was rendered at the scene. However, the man was declared deceased,” a police statement said.
The QPS said that both deaths were being treated as non-suspicious and that reports would be prepared for the coroner.
