Free State – Five people including a 12-year-old girl drowned at Vet River, Wesselsbron in Free State while performing church rituals police said on Monday.
According to police, a female witness said the mother was holding her 12-year-old daughter while standing in the river to do a ritual when the child was swept away in the water.
Four men attempted to save the child and also drowned.
Divers were called to the scene and bodies were retrieved from the river.
IOL