Kolkata: Teenager drowns during swimming lessons in pool
Shahbaz who had joined swimming training barely some days ago was irregular, sources revealed.
Kolkata: A teenaged boy died after getting drowned while he was learning swimming in College Square lake on Sunday morning. Mohammed Shahbaz (17), the deceased, was an inmate of an orphanage at Dr. Sudhir Bose Road in Entally. He was a class IX student at a school near Mohammed Ali Park. At around 8.30 am, the city police received a call on helpline number: DIAL100 that a boy had drowned in the pool two hours ago.
Cops of the Amherst Stree police rushed to the pool. During a search, the members of the deep diving team of the disaster management group of the Kolkata Police fished out the body from the lake where an aged swimming coach had also died two years ago. Shahbaz was declared brought dead at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital. The body was sent for post-mortem.
Shahbaz who had joined swimming training barely some days ago was irregular, sources revealed. He came to learn swimming under Calcutta University Institute Swimming Section, according to the police.
Sources added that the teenager, who was wearing a red cap like other beginners, walked from inside pool, meant for the beginners, to the outside pool, meant for the swimmers, which has a depth from seven ft to 30 ft.
He then jumped into the water escaping the vigil of the trainners. Joy Dutta, a trainer of Shailendra Memorial swimming centre, alleged that that only a few trainners are entrusted for teaching swimming to many beginners. “Moreover there is no life-guard at the pool. I have some friends who are certified life-guards. But no club could afford them,” he claimed.
Waking up to the incident, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation has shut down the pool from Monday. In the afternoon, member, mayor-in-council (Parks & Gardens) Debasish Kumar said, “We have ordered the closure of the swimming training at College Square Lake for indefinite period. Earlier, a similar incident had happened there. Now it has been repeated. We will look into why it happened again.”
Nearly two years ago swimming coach: Kajal Dutta (67) died due to drowning in the same lake. He was also the instructor of Bowbazar Byayam Samity.