A 16-year-old girl died while her six friends were injured after they were swept away by a river’s rampaging waters in Barangay Budlaan, Cebu City Friday afternoon.
Joy Erlim Sayre, a resident of barangay Subangdaku in Mandaue City, sustained injuries on her head and face as well as fractured her arm, said P03 Winston Ybañez, an investigator of the Cebu City Police Office’s Homicide Division.
She was rescued and brought by members of the Quick Reaction Team of the City’s Disaster Risk Reduction Office to the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) but the doctors confirmed that she died on arrival.
Based on the police investigation, Sayre went with her friends for a mountain trek in Budlaan Friday morning. They proceeded to Linot-uog Falls in sitio Kambaog where they took their lunch.
The group afterward decided to take a dip in the river. At 3 p.m., a strong surge swept them away.
“They held their arms together but Joy was taken by the strong current,” Ybañez said. Two hours later, Sayre’s remains was recovered floating on the river, about a kilometer away from her friends.
Ybañez said the girl’s body was subjected to autopsy. The results will be known Sunday.