A post-exam swim turns tragic as boy drowns off East Coast Park

SINGAPORE — With an examination paper behind them, a group of JurongVille Secondary School students headed to East Coast Park on Monday (May 8) to cool off and have a swim, but things took a tragic turn.

One of the students, a 12-year-old boy, drowned while swimming.

The boy’s body was found off the waters of Bedok Jetty after a three-hour search operation by the Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF).

The SCDF said in a Facebook post on Monday (May 8) that it was alerted to the incident at 12.25pm. 

The rescuers recovered the boy’s body at around 3.30pm.

A police spokesperson said that the boy was pronounced dead at the scene, and that investigations into the case are in progress. 

By 4.30pm, the police had cordoned off the area in front of Xtreme Skatepark, a few minutes’ walk from East Coast Lagoon Food Village. The boy’s family and a group of teachers from his school were present, but declined comment.

Three other boys were also seen within the restricted area, but later left with their families. 

They also did not want to talk about the incident when approached.

TODAY understands that the boy, a Secondary 1 student, is the youngest of three children.

Jurongville Secondary School’s vice-principal Elaine Tan said that the school is “deeply saddened” by the boy’s death, and school leaders, staff members and counsellors are providing emotional support and assistance to the family, as well as to affected students and staff members.

This is the second fatal mishap involving a secondary school student in two weeks.

On April 24, 13-year-old Muhammad Hambali Sumathi was playing football with his classmates at Geylang Methodist Secondary School when the goalpost fell on him. 

He suffered serious head injuries and died.