Fourth year Poly student drowns in Lake Malawi

A Fourth Year Polytechnic student, Evance Banda, died on Saturday after drowning in Lake Malawi in Mangochi, police have confirmed.

Banda was among the Polytechnic’s fourth year students who were having a symposium at Andrews Holiday Resort in the lake shore district and he met his fate when the students went swimming around noon

According to Mangochi Police Station Deputy Spokesperson, Sergeant Amina Tepani Daudi, the incident happened around 12 pm when Banda booked a boat and sailed into deep waters where he then jumped off the boat to swim but failed and consequently drowned.

“Efforts by the boat operator to rescue him proved futile and when he was later retrieved from the water he was rushed to Mangochi District Hospital where he was pronounced dead,” Daudi said.

She said the matter was reported to Mangochi Police Station who visited the scene of the incident.

A postmortem conducted at the hospital revealed that death was due to suffocation.

Banda hailed from Mphimbi Village, Traditional Authority Mponela in Dowa.

The Police have since appealed to members of the general public to always use life jackets whenever they go swimming to avoid similar incidents.