Tragedy in Osijek: Four-year-old drowns in the Drava River

(Patria) - A terrible tragedy in Osijek. A four-year-old child drowned in the Drava River this afternoon around 2 PM, who fell into the water while playing on one of the pontoons set up along the riverbank through an opening between two planks.

Eyewitnesses say the child's mother immediately started calling for help and shouting, and entered the water herself to help, but there was no saving the child.

Reportedly, his body appeared on the surface of the water twice in a short period, but unfortunately, there was no saving him.

Police divers arrived at the scene very quickly and began searching for the child, but after a few hours, specifically at 4:44 PM, they found only his lifeless body, very close to where he fell into the river.

Osijek resident Vuk Ognjenović, who lives not far from the scene of this great tragedy, heard from his terrace that a real drama was unfolding on the Drava River.

- I was cleaning the terrace and heard someone scream several times, it was a scream after a scream, almost inhuman... I ran out and found a woman who was in the water almost up to her neck.

She was talking incoherently from shock and I couldn't understand what she was saying. I assumed it was about a child, although I hoped it wasn't.

She kept telling me and pointing: 'There, there, there!', and I told her I would go downstream a bit and towards her. She told me: 'No, no, no! I just saw him there!'

I swam towards her, about 50 meters upstream, then I went between the pontoons and moved them apart, and felt with my feet between the boats.

I ran towards the barracks, then I came back. Later, I entered the water again and tried to find him.

A neighbor, who also heard the screams and ran over, managed to get her to say it was a four-year-old child.

I thought I had been looking for the little one for ten minutes, but they told me later that I had been searching for him for over an hour - the Osijek resident recounted his terrible experience.

He added that during the search, he himself got tangled under the pontoons at one point, so he had to get out of the water, writes Jutarnji list.

The causes of this tragedy will be determined by an investigation, and medical assistance was also provided to the child's mother.