4 June, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. A three-year-old child drowned in the Shumilino district, the Vitebsk regional organization of the Belarusian Voluntary Society for the Rescue of People on Water (OSVOD) informed a BELTA correspondent. The evening of 1 June ended in tragedy for a family from Polotsk during their recreation in the village of Dobeya. The parents had come with their young son to visit his grandparents and left the toddler without vigilant supervision. While the adults were tending to the garden, the child ran to a nearby ditch, fell from a culvert, and drowned. Since the beginning of March, this is already the fifth case of children aged one to eight years old drowning in the Vitebsk region due to adult negligence: the grim statistics were initiated in Lepel, Postavy, Orsha (2 cases), and now in Shumilino districts. To prevent similar tragedies and considering the start of summer holidays for schoolchildren, OSVOD employees urge parents to vigilantly watch their children when near any body of water, not to leave them unattended, and to observe all safety precautions themselves when swimming. -0-

BELTA