RIYADH: For more than 25 hours, 70 rescuers and 10 divers searched for a three-year-old boy who went missing on the first day of Eid in Wadi Hanifa just south of Riyadh. The search ended with the discovery of the body of the drowned child 27 kilometers away from where he presumably drowned.
Lt. Mohammad Al- Hammadi, the Civil Defense spokesman in Riyadh, said the family was on a picnic near the valley, when the child went missing and all they could find was his hat.
“Since the beginning of the holiday season the Saudi Civil Defense has issued many notifications and warnings in newspapers and on TV for people to exhibit extreme caution when picnicking in areas where the water level may be dangerous.”
The Civil Defense in Riyadh said this is the only reported holiday drowning in the capital.
The Civil Defense also warns families from venturing too far into remote or hard-to-reach areas in search of privacy because doing so poses a challenge to emergency responders.
