The absence of coast guards and lack of safety equipment for tourists who want to swim in the area has caused frequent drowning.
Four-year-old Fatin shouted to her mother Susiana as a boat searching for two drowning people was pulling up on Pangi Beach in Blitar, East Java, on Friday.
She was looking for her brother, 19-year-old Eko Julianto, who happened to be one of the victims. Eko was last seen on Tuesday morning, along with 16 friends from Ngoro district in Jombang.
They were on holiday and some of them had been swimming near the beach for some 30 minutes before the waves suddenly grew larger and dragged them away from the shore.
“We threw them ring buoys, but only four of them made it, the two others [are] missing,” said Kateni, a fisherman volunteering as a lifeguard at the beach.
The other missing teen is 20-year-old Indra Prasetyo, Eko’s neighbour.
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