9-yr-old boy drowns in Pangasinan swamp

SAN CARLOS CITY–A 9-year-old boy drowned in a swamp in Barangay Pangalangan here on Monday, police said.

 
Supt. Ferdinand de Asis, Pangasinan police spokesperson, said Mark Aaron Solomon, a Grade 4 pupil at the Pangalangan Elementary School, was catching spiders with his classmates along the swamp in the village when he decided to swim at past 11 a.m.

 
After a minute, police said Solomon cried for help, prompting his classmates to run to the victim’s house to inform his parents about his situation.

 
But by the time the victim’s father, Harold, and other residents arrived in the swamp, the boy had sunk.

 
The boy’s body was found about an hour later at the swamp’s bottom, with a foot stuck in a tangle of swamp cabbage (kangkong) vine.

 
Police said the boy died while being taken to the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital here.