Heroic 9-Year-Old Boy Drowns While Trying To Rescue His Friend Who Fell Into A Construction Pit

A nine-year-old boy has drowned while trying to save a friend who had fallen into a construction pit, Rekordnorth News has reported.

 

The sad incident happened in South Africa. The teenage boy was identified as Thapelo Tambeni.

 

Tambeni, a pupil at Transoranje school for the deaf, was playing with his friends on a heap of sand near a construction site when one of his friends suddenly slipped into a water-filled trench last Wednesday.

 

Tambeni managed to rescue his friend, but ended up sliding into the trench himself and disappeared under the murky water, his brother Joseph said.

 

Joseph was called to the scene, where he immediately started the attempt to rescue his younger brother.

 

“My friend tied a rope around my waist so I could get into the water to look for him. I could not locate him as the trench was filled with muddy water,” he said.

 

Tambani’s sister Margret told Rekord that she heard the devastating news from her late brother’s playmates.

 

“It was about 4:30 when I was told that my brother had fallen into a trench. A group of kids came running and crying at my door telling me that my brother was drowning.”

 

The construction site is behind the Soshanguve South secondary school, near the Sandriver in extension 10. The incident has left the community in shock.

 

Operations to rescue Tambani went on well into the night. It was only after expert divers had arrived that his dead body was pulled out of the trench.