15-year-old boy drowns in river current in Turkey's Mersin province

A 15-year-old foreign national has died after being swept away by a river current in the Kayacı Valley of Turkey's Erdemli district. The incident occurred in the Limonlu River near the Dokuz Ocak area.

The teenager, identified by the initials E.S., was picnicking with friends when he entered the river. Although he told his friends he would follow shortly, he never reappeared. His friends and relatives initiated a search when they could not find him at the spot where they last saw him.

Upon realizing they could not locate the boy themselves, they alerted the 112 Emergency Command Center. The center dispatched multiple rescue teams, including gendarmerie, firefighters, police, and AFAD search and rescue units, along with divers, to the scene.

Erdemli District Governor Aydın Tetikoğlu was present to monitor the operations. The teams conducted searches both on land and in the water. Their efforts confirmed that the child had become trapped in a whirlpool section of the river and drowned. Rescue teams worked intensely to retrieve the body from its underwater location.

Tragically, this is not the first such incident at this location. Approximately four years ago, an 11-year-old child also lost their life in the same river. In that 2022 incident, the child fell into the river while trying to retrieve a dropped slipper and was found trapped under a rock after about 30 hours of searching.