2 grade schoolers drown in Dagupan

DAGUPAN CITY — Two grade school pupils on Friday (June 29) drowned in the Pantal River here, police said.

Grade 3 pupil Lance dela Cruz, 9, and Grade 6 pupil Ramil Decena, 11, were unconscious when bystanders rescued them. Doctors in the hospitals where they were taken declared them both dead on arrival.

Police said the two boys were first seen playing while it was raining heavily about 1:30 p.m. near their house at the eastern bank of the Pantal River in Barangay (village) Pantal.

A few minutes later, bystanders saw them frantically waving their arms as they sank in the river.

Police said the two boys could not swim and may have been swept by the river’s strong current.