An 11-year-old girl has proved to be her brother’s keeper after rescuing him from drowning in a pool in West Riding, Cape Town, on Friday.

The 10-year-old boy became unresponsive in the pool and sank to the bottom of the pool. His sister helped him back to the surface and called for help.

ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak said that at approximately 12:30 paramedics arrived at the pool in a complex where they found bystanders with the child. He said that the boy was confused but in a stable condition.

“Bystanders explained to paramedics that the children were in the pool when his sister noticed he did not come up from under the water. She called out to the adults who then rescued him from the water. They continued to explain that the boy was unresponsive and he only later regained consciousness after expelling water,” said Vermaak.

He said the boy was assessed at the scene and was then transported to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital for further care.

Meanwhile, least 10 people have drowned in KwaZulu-Natal since the beginning of the festive season.

5 Christmas Day drownings
Police search and rescue units, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) and emergency services have been called out to several parts of the province for drowning incidents.

On Thursday, a 65-year-old Krugersdorp man died after a scuba diving expedition went wrong just off KwaZulu-Natal’s South Coast.

The search for several drowning victims at KwaZulu-Natal beaches resumed on Friday morning, provincial police said.

A 13-year-old boy drowned at a beach on KwaZulu-Natal’s South Coast on Thursday and is yet to be found, while the Empangeni search and rescue of a 15-year-old boy and three others who were swept away by a rip current at St Lucia Beach, on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal, around 15:00 on Wednesday also continues.

The NSRI said five people drowned on Christmas Day in separate incidents across the country.