A man drowned Wednesday afternoon after leaping into the sea from a small boat that ran aground the reef of Shaviyani atoll Bilehfahi island.
According to the local man’s son and president and the island council Abdulla Ziyad, the accident occurred around 2:45 p.m. Wednesday when the small boat, which was entering the island’s reef channel, was thrown upon the reef by a large wave.
The man, Mohamed Siraj Idrees, 55, had leapt from the boat with a rope but was carried away by the strong currents and drowned.
Ziyad added that some people on the beach had tried to swim to his father’s rescue, but he was unmoving and believed dead even by the time they reached him and took him on land.
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