Two foreigners drown in Mahaweli estuary

CHAMIKARA WEERASINGHE

Two foreigners drowned yesterday when the van they were inside went off the ferry where it was boarded for being ferried across the Mahaweli estuary in the Keeniya police division of Trincomalee, and fell into the water when they reportedly turned on the vehicle’s ignition key to turn on its AC module to cool off the day with artificial ventilation.

Sources at the Keeniya police post said, Navy divers found the bodies of I. Fujiwara, a Japanese national and Arnulfo Bolanto, a Philippine national, inside their cab (252-0207) which was submerged in the Mahaweli estuary.

Police said that the two were on some trip to Mullaitivu with two others.

One of them, their driver A.M.R.G. Gunawardena had given a statement to the police about the incident.

The exact ages of the deceased were yet to be identified as their IDs do not give any information about their dates of birth, police said and added that they were presumably in their early 30s.

The incident had taken place between 9.30 a.m. to 10.30 a.m. yesterday. The party including the two deceased foreigners have come to use the ferry service, which is run free of charge by the Road Development Authority to transport goods and persons, where they happened to board All of them have come out of the vehicle at first.