A search operation is under way for a 15-year-old schoolboy who went missing while bathing in the Mahaweli River near Udowita, Gampola, on Tuesday evening (July 22), police said.
According to Ada Derana, the teenager had entered the river with two companions at a spot along the Mahaweli when he reportedly slipped underwater and disappeared. Hiru News, which identified him as a student from a school in Gampola town and a resident of the Udowita area, reported that he had gone to the river with his brother and another student after school.
Hiru News added that sand extraction at the bathing spot had created a section several feet deep, a factor local residents linked to the incident.
Gampola Police have launched an investigation and rescue teams have been deployed to locate the missing boy.
The case adds to a recurring pattern of river and reservoir drownings in Sri Lanka, particularly involving young people bathing at unsupervised inland waterways during the dry-season school break. Officials have repeatedly warned that stretches of the Mahaweli can conceal sudden drops and strong currents, and have urged parents and children to avoid swimming at unmarked spots where the depth and riverbed cannot be judged from the bank.
