Four teenagers have drowned while swimming at Elegushi Beach, in the Lekki area of Lagos State.
Channels Television gathered that the unidentified victims were swimming in the water before tragedy struck on Tuesday.
The 10 children, aged between 14 and 15, were at the beach to celebrate the completion of their West African Senior School Examination. They were said to be pupils of the Kuramo Senior College, Lekki.
The Lagos State Police Command confirmed the incident to Channels Television.
In a telephone conversation on Wednesday, Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Benjamin Hundeyin, said the corpse of one of the students has been recovered.
He also stated that efforts were ongoing to recover the bodies of the three other students with the assistance of local divers.
The local divers and police officials from the Ilasan Division are still in search of the remaining bodies.
However, the spokesperson for the Elegushi Beach Management, Chief Ayuba Elegushi, in a statement issued to The Punch on Tuesday, said the pupils were not properly registered.
According to him, the incident happened at an unmanned section of the beach not open to the public.
While the victims were said to have raised the alarm as the water swept them away, Elegushi said some life guards plunged into the water and brought out six of the pupils.
“Out of the six that were rescued, some escaped by the time we got there. We were able to arrest two of them and we took them to the Jakande Police Station,” Elegushi stated.
“As of now, there are still four missing as our seamen have not been able to bring them out of the water. We have informed their parents and they have come to the police station. Abass is one of the missing kids. There is another boy we have not identified and two other girls.”
The spokesperson said the two boys that were arrested told the police that they were chased from the beach before sneaking into the restricted section to swim.