Police had to retrieve the bodies of two people from a milk cooling tank.
Image: SAPS
Police in the Eastern Cape were called to a scene on a dairy farm in Humansdorp to recover bodies from a milk cooling tank.
The retrieval of the bodies resulted in a joint rescue operation.
The provincial police spokesperson, Captain Marius McCarthy, said the incident took place on Wednesday at approximately 4.29pm.
“The South African Police Service’s Search and Rescue Unit jointly launched a rescue operation with Humansdorp Emergency Medical Services (EMS), EMS Training and Humansdorp Fire Rescue Unit, implementing a 3:1 rope system,” McCarthy said.
A police constable, Emilio George, was selected to enter the cooling tank due to his body build and was equipped with a long-line full-face breathing apparatus and lowered into the confined tank beside the spiral cooling rod.
The bodies recovered were those of the employees on the dairy farm.
“Tragically, both bodies (employees of the dairy farm) were discovered face-down in the water and were carefully recovered through the narrow gap and transferred to EMS which declared both men, aged 27 and 54, dead on the scene,” McCarthy said.
Police have opened an inquest docket for further investigation.
The circumstances of the incident remains unclear at this stage.
robin.francke@iol.co.za
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