A sixteen-year-old boy drowned in the Ourthe near Barvaux on Friday while cooling off in the river with two friends. The young Cameroonian, Edouard, had arrived in Belgium three weeks earlier and was staying in a Red Cross reception center in Barvaux, the Luxembourg prosecutor’s office said today.
The incident took place around 6 p.m. According to a hiker on the other side, two young people dipped their feet in the Ourthe, while Edouard lay in the water. According to statements from his friends, the teen said he could swim to the middle of the river, which he did.
But Edouard then ran into trouble and struggled in the water. His two friends dived in to save him, but lost sight of him. A helicopter and then divers were deployed to find the teen. They found his body 10 meters from where he had sunk, at a depth of 2.5 metres.
“A forensic doctor confirmed that he had drowned and ruled out any external intervention,” said a magistrate from the Marche-en-Famenne section of the Luxembourg public prosecutor’s office.
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