A 12-year old boy on Wednesday drowned in a stream near Kumasi High School at Gyenyase in Kumasi.

It took police and fire service personnel about two hours to retrieve the body of the yet-to-be-identified boy, after some rituals by traditional authorities.

The victim is believed to have gone swimming with other colleagues after school when disaster struck at about 3.p.m.

Security personnel wouldn’t speak on the issue but eye-witness account suggests they were handicapped because there was no expert diver available for any rescue attempt.

The eyewitness said none of the fire personnel at scene could dive into the stream to retrieve the dead body.

“It only took the efforts of residents to dive deep to get the boy out of the stream. In situations like this, the fire service must be well equipped to handle such accidents. They should employ people who have some diving experience,” the eyewitness said.

Residents in the area say they least expected the tragic incident, after repeated warning to children to desist from swimming in the stream.

Assemblyman for Ahensan Estate, Nana Yaw Wiredu who also led the pouring of libation into the stream, renews the caution to parents and guardians to keep their children and wards to stay away from the stream to forestall a recurrence.

“As a matter of fact, I don’t like the way kids play in and around this “Wewe” river. I warned some of them earlier today to stay away from the river but they wouldn’t listen. So I wasn’t much surprised when the incident occurred. This is the first of such incident here and as the assembly member I will put sign posts and warning signs to deter people from coming close. I would also caution parents to advice their children to stay away from the stream,” Mr. Wiredu said.