A 67-year-old woman and a nine-month-old baby were still missing on Monday after they were swept away by a flooded river in Johannesburg last week, North Rand police reported.
Superintendent Eugene Opperman said police, using boats, a helicopter and sniffer dogs, searched for the two in the Kaalspruit river from Ivory Park to Centurion.
”Police divers, with assistance from emergency services personnel, even resorted to removing large objects like tree logs, old car wrecks and other objects out of the river,” he said.
Opperman said Masetjaba Moema and her baby, Paballo, cross the river over a low-level concrete bridge on Friday. They were swept away by the strong current.
Sophie Mhlongo, a passer-by who tried to help, was also swept away. Masetjaba Moema made it to safety.
Area commissioner Joel Mokwena visited the scene on Friday and Saturday.
”Emergency personnel and police are doing a sterling job in their attempts to recover the bodies but the river is high and the water is very fast flowing at some places, causing many dangerous situations for rescuer workers,” he said in a statement.
”However, this is not stopping these brave men and women in trying their best to search even those perilous areas of the river.”
Mokwena said there were large parts of the river where dense reeds made the search difficult. He said rescue workers had until the end of Monday to decide whether they should call off the search.
”A decision of this kind is never easy and is never taken lightly. We know the family and friends would like to have some kind of closure to such a sad situation, and this is also why all the emergency personnel worked around the clock and without much sleep in an attempt to find the bodies,” Mokwena said. – Sapa