A 17-year-old who had travelled to the southern coast on a family excursion is missing after being swept away in the sea off Talpe, police said on Sunday, while three other children drowned in a separate incident off Hungama Kalamatiya at the weekend.
The Talpe victim is a resident of Mallawapitiya in the Kurunegala District. Police said he had entered the sea for a bath when he was swept away and lost. The Talpe stretch, popular with day-trippers visiting the southern beach belt, lies on a tidal line that turns dangerous in the southwest monsoon transition.
In the second incident, three children aged 12, 17 and 18 drowned while bathing in the sea off Hungama Kalamatiya on Friday (May 30), police confirmed to NewsFirst.
The two cases come during a week of heavy domestic travel for the Vesak holiday weekend and continue a cluster of sea drownings reported through the southwest monsoon onset. They follow Met Department wave advisories that preceded the Kirinda teacher drowning and earlier reservoir and lagoon fatalities at Victoria. The government’s national drowning-prevention mechanism announced in May is intended to coordinate beach signage, lifeguard cover and public warnings — measures that remain uneven across the southern coast.
Sources: Teen Missing After Drowning Incident in Talpe — NewsFirst.
