Drowning may have been a hoax
It’s still a mystery: did someone drown after falling off a Belize City Bridge over the weekend? At the time the incident seemed real enough, but now police and the public aren’t so sure.
Shortly after eight, Friday night, traffic on the Belchina Bridge came to an abrupt stop as motorists and pedestrians gathered in the area to help officials find a young boy who had supposedly fallen off the bridge and down into the dark and murky waters below. Edward Broaster, Inspector of Police, told News Five they received reports that a couple of young boys apparently were walking on the bridge’s railing, when one of them allegedly slipped and fell into the river.
Insp. Edward Broaster
“We got a report that a child apparently around the age of seven years fell into the river. We are not sure as to the location where the child fell but we are conducting a search and rescue at this time.”
Q: “Who are doing the search and rescue right now?”
Insp. Edward Broaster
“Right now we have local fishermen and we have policemen doing the search.”
The police, firemen and concerned citizens combed the area for several hours but to no avail. As the night dragged on, some anxious youths, put their own lives on the line, as they jumped into the water, one after the next, hoping to find the missing youth. But as the clock ticked nearer to eleven, hopes of finding anyone began to dim and soon after the search was called off.
Today, Head of C.I.B., Inspector Simeon Alvarez told News Five that while they are not ruling out an actual incident, there is a strong possibility the whole event may have been a hoax. Alvarez says so far they have not received a missing child report despite the fact that the police have been appealing to the general public to report to C.I.B. if they know anything about a child around the age of seven years who has been missing since Friday. Alvarez says while they expected the body to have floated up today, three days after the alleged incident, nothing has surfaced.
But whether the incident is real or not, it has certainly brought to light a dangerous game that is played nightly by a group of street children… walking on the bridge’s railing. It is hoped that after Friday night’s incident not only will police be patrolling the area, but the children will realize the possible consequences of this tightrope act.
Alvarez says that if there are no new developments in the case by Friday they will close the case and consider it a hoax.
