Adelaide: An Indian schoolgirl who was in Adelaide to play football at the Pacific School Games has drowned off a city beach.
The 15-year-old was with four other girls at Holdfast marina at Glenelg on Sunday evening when they got into trouble.
Lifesavers were able to rescue the others but were unable to find the girl until Monday when her body was pulled from the water.
The Indian high commission is providing support to the group, who were all involved in the sporting carnival. Its consular officials are flying in from Sydney.
Pacific School Games organisers confirmed the dead girl was part of the Indian delegation but did not reveal her sport.
However, the Matildas captain, Melissa Barbieri, tweeted that she was a footballer.
The international week-long event, which finished on Saturday, involved about 4,000 participants from 15 countries in primary and senior school competing in 11 sports.
Of the other girls involved in the incident, two 17-year-olds were taken to the Flinders medical centre, where one was listed as critical and one stable.
Another 17-year-old was in the Royal Adelaide hospital in a serious but stable condition and a 12-year-old was in the Women’s and Children’s hospital in a stable condition.
The mayor of Holdfast, Stephen Patterson, said the area was a treacherous spot that had claimed other lives.
“There are signs near the actual breakwater itself alerting people to the fact there are strong currents,” he told ABC radio on Monday.
The breakwater at the northern end of the beach creates an “unnatural” movement in the water, swirling and causing currents, Surf Life Saving SA’s acting emergency operations manager, Ben Laurenson, said.
Two boys drowned at Glenelg on New Year’s Day in 2016.
The SA government will pay for girl’s body to be taken back to India, the tourism, recreation and sport minister, Leon Bignell, said.
(Source: The Guardian)