Durban - The bodies of two friends who drowned during a fishing outing earlier this week, have been pulled from the Umdloti River on Friday.
Andile Ngema,11, and Sibongokuhle Msami, 12, according to Reaction Unit SA's Prem Balram, disappeared under the water shortly after they went for a swim.
He said the pair went in for a swim to cool off and experienced difficulty while swimming.
"Their friends witnessed the incident and attempted to rescue them, but were unsuccessful," he said.
The search resumed on Friday.
"This morning, Rusa officers along with IPSS Medical Search and Rescue as well as police search and rescue units met on the river bank. The Rusa R44 helicopter was activated and to conduct a low level flight to disperse water hyacinth that had covered the area and posed a risk to rescue teams," Balram said.
Along with a specially-trained search dog, the team was able to enter the water and using an inflatable boat, locate the bodies of the youngsters, found just metres away from each other.
The boys were from the Waterloo Primary School.
Their bodies were handed over to SAPS and police will be investigating further.
IOL