A 19-year-old has died and a second youth remains missing after three young men got into difficulty while bathing in the Ma Oya at Madurupitiya, in the Mirigama area, on Saturday afternoon.
Police said the three had gone to the river to bathe when they were caught in the water. Two were pulled out by residents of the area and admitted to Dambadeniya Hospital. One of them, who was in critical condition, later died of his injuries.
The dead youth was a 19-year-old from the Mirigama area, according to the Daily Mirror and NewsFirst. Ada Derana described him only as a teenager and did not give an age.
Search continues for the third man
Officers from the Mirigama Police and the Police Life-Saving Unit are searching for the missing youth, assisted by residents of the area. He had not been found when the three newsrooms filed their reports on Sunday morning.
The accounts agree on the sequence of events. Ada Derana gave the fullest version — one dead, one rescued and one missing out of a group of three — while NewsFirst and the Daily Mirror led on the death and the missing man, each also noting the youth who was rescued and hospitalised.
Naming
Ada Derana and the Daily Mirror render the town as Meerigama; NewsFirst uses Mirigama, the form that appears more often in earlier coverage and is used here. NewsFirst refers to the river as the Maha Oya, while Ada Derana and the Daily Mirror call it the Ma Oya.
The river has claimed lives before. A teenager drowned in the Ma Oya at Mawanella in May.
