HANOI, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Four children aged five to seven drowned in a fish pond in Vietnam's central Khanh Hoa province, local media reported on Thursday.
Three boys and one girl from Khanh Hoa, who were close relatives, were taking a bath in the pond in Khanh Vinh district when they slid into a deep hole and drowned on Wednesday, daily newspaper Thanh Nien (Young People) quoted the local authorities as reporting.
"Drowning is a silent epidemic claiming more than 2,000 children's lives per year in Vietnam," an official from the World Health Organization in Vietnam told Xinhua recently, adding that the rate of child drowning in Vietnam is higher than other Southeast Asian nations and 10 times higher than that of developed countries.
The official said that many deaths caused by drowning in Vietnam were preventable, and the drowning rate among local children would fall if adults supervise kids' activities more closely, and if more kids were provided with survival swimming and water safety skills.
