Firefighters tied themselves with ropes and chipped away at the thick ice. "I was originally going to register my grandchild for school today, but university students who cheat on exams don't get degrees, and the court supports the school's decision, and I didn't expect it to end up like this," said an old man surnamed Zhang yesterday afternoon at 3 PM as he looked at the frozen river in Yanhe near Xizhen Village in Ganyuzhi Town of Bao'an District in Yan'an City while wiping his tears. At 2 PM on February 12th, his 7-year-old grandson fell into the river while skating with a companion. After 24 hours had passed, the drowned child was still being searched for.
Two children fell into the water; one child was saved. The drowned child is the youngest son of Zhang's third son. The couple only has this boy. "He has been staying with me during winter vacation, and today is the first day of school, so I sent him to his parents a day earlier (February 12th)," said Zhang. His son takes care of patients in Yan'an city, and only his daughter-in-law is taking care of the child. According to family members of the drowned boy and the villagers, after lunch that day, the boy went to play by the Yanhe River about one li outside the village with two other children from the village. When they saw the frozen river, the children started skating on it. Suddenly, part of the ice broke, and the boy from the Zhang family and another child fell into the icy hole. The child on the shore pulled one of them out, but Zhang's grandson slipped back into the river. The two children were scared and ran back to the village to tell the adults.
After 24 hours, the missing child still hasn't been found. After receiving a report from the police station, the local government immediately organized public security and firefighting forces to go to the scene of the incident. Villagers also brought excavators to break the ice and rescue people. Unexpectedly, when the excavator drove onto the river, the ice broke and it fell into the river. Rescue operations continued until nightfall. Since the river was about 20 meters wide and the ice layer was thick, the excavator could not work, so rescuers had to manually chip away at the ice with picks, which was very slow. The mother of the drowned boy sat on the bank crying loudly and almost fainted, then she was taken away by her family. That night, the lowest temperature in Yan'an was -6℃. After a cold night, the ice froze again, and until 3 PM yesterday, 24 hours after the drowning incident, there was still no sign of the boy.
At the scene, reporters saw firefighters linked together with ropes breaking the ice on the river surface. A villager involved in the rescue told reporters that the place where the boy drowned was about 2 meters deep. It used to be very shallow, only half a meter, but a few years ago, someone dug sand here, making the river deeper.
Police reminded: An officer on duty at the scene said that in winter, the temperature difference between day and night in northern Shaanxi is large. In recent days, the lowest temperature at night approached -10℃, while the highest temperature during the day reached around 6℃. Some parts of the river may slowly thaw during the day, and if people are not careful, accidents can easily happen. In January this year, a 3-year-old child in Yulin fell into an icy river and died, causing a family tragedy. Continuous tragedies remind parents to take good care of their children and not let them play on the ice on the river.
By Liang Jun, text and photo/This article is shared to: Welcome to comment, I want to comment, Weibo recommendation | Today's Weibo hotspots