The bodies of three men who drowned were retrieved from a river in Bothaville on Saturday, Free State police said.
“They have just retrieved them now...they are all dead,” Sergeant Puleng Motsoeneng said.
The three men were part of a group of eight who went to visit some boys at an initiation school on a Bothaville farm Friday night.
Motsoeneng said the men visited other boys who were still attending the school and when they left on Saturday morning they had to cross a river to get home.
“One boy drowned, age 18, and the other two, age 21 and 23, tried to rescue him and they also drowned.”
She said the other five boys notified police of the incident just after it happened at 7am and police rescue divers were sent out to retrieve the bodies. - Sapa