STA, 11 December 2021 - A 10-year-old Turkish girl who went missing after she fell into the swollen Dragonja on the Slovenian-Croatian border on Thursday evening and got swept downstream as her mother was carrying her on her shoulders across the river, was found dead around noon today.
The girl was found dead on the Croatian side of the river by Croatian police officers and divers of the Slovenian Armed Forces, the Koper Police Department has told the STA.
The search effort that started late on Thursday also involved professional and volunteer Slovenian fire-fighters, police dog handlers and members of the national underwater rescue service.
Officers of the maritime police unit and members of the Maritime Administration searched the mouth of the river and the surrounding sea, and the campaign also included several rescue teams on the Croatian side of the river.
The unfortunate girl fell into the cold and swollen river as her 47-year-old mother was trying to cross it to enter Slovenia, carrying her on her shoulders.
While the woman was saved by Slovenian police officers with the help of a citizen who had called the police, the girl was swept downstream.
The woman was found to be a Turkish national. Two of her children, aged 18 and 5, were already on the Slovenian side, while another child, aged 13, was still on the Croatian side. As the situation took place on the border line, they were all returned to Croatia.
This is the second death of a migrant in the area lately, as a 31-year-old national of Bangladesh was found dead in the Dragonja valley last Saturday, with initial information indicating hypothermia as the cause of death.
