2 students drown, 2 missing at Strand

A TRIP to Strand beach ended in tragedy when two students from the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) Students Christian Organisation (SCO) were swept out to sea and drowned.

Two other students, in their 20s, were missing.

National Sea Rescue Institute spokesperson Craig Lambinon said members of the church group entered a restricted area “where signage at the beach indicates the area to be a no-swimming area”.

Lambinon said the area was “a notorious surfing area known for big waves and for strong rip currents”.

He said lifeguards were alerted to a mass drowning incident at ‘Pipe’ and raised the alarm before finding one woman being assisted from the water by fellow church group members.

The lifeguards rescued a second woman from the water before continuing to search for two men who were missing, but “extremely rough sea conditions forced lifeguards to withdraw from the water”.

Despite an extensive search by a helicopter, there were no signs of the men, aged 19 and 20, from Venda in Limpopo.

Lambinon said sea conditions were rough with 2.5m to 3m breaking swells in 45 knot winds, gusting to 50 knots and there was poor water visibility.

SCO spokesperson Sibabalo Mtonga said one of the students presumed drowned was a second-year law student at UWC and the other a first-year mechanical engineering student at CPUT.