Twins death in Qingdao sparks holiday safety concerns

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The news of a pair of twin sisters that drowned at a beach in Qingdao city, east China’s Shandong Province broke millions of hearts on Monday, after their bodies were salvaged from the sea.

The eight-year-old twins were in Qingdao city spending the summer holiday with their mother. According to the local police, they went missing while playing on the beach outside their residence on Sunday.

“They were playing on the beach, and I was only several meters away from them,” said Mrs. Chen, mother of the twins. She recalled that she was checking her cellphone, and when she lifted up her head searching for her kids, they were not there any more.

Rescue team search for the twin sisters in Qingdao city. /VCG Photo

Local police started searching for the sisters immediately after getting the report. A missing sign for the twins also went viral on local residents WeChat Moments. However, the bodies of the sisters were salvaged from the sea, dozens of meters away from the beach on Monday morning.

The reason why the children drowned is still under investigation.

The tragedy has sparked safety concerns during the holiday period, as well as parents and tourist resorts.

Many have criticized the mother for focusing too much on her phone while overlooking the safety of the children.

Missing sign for the twin sisters. /Photo via Sina Weibo

“The mother’s lack of safety awareness is the main reason that caused the tragedy,” said a Sina Weibo user.

Many local residents in Qingdao took to the net to remind tourists that the sea is much more unpredictable than a local swimming pool due to currents and sea waves.

However, many have also been questioning whether safety equipment on the beach would have been to a standard good enough to prevent such incident.

Police said the beach has not been developed for tourism, and warning signboards have been set up along the beach, reminding people that swimming is forbidden in the area. But many tourists and local residents still come to play in the seawater occasionally.

Rescue team search for the twin sisters in Qingdao city. /VCG Photo

“The sea water here could be as deep as five to six meters along the beach, and there are a lot of fishing nets underwater. Some of them were abandoned,” said a police officer from Qingdao’s rescue team.

Along Qingdao’s coastline, there are many such undeveloped beach areas, with no professional rescue team and surveillance facilities. Local people call such areas the “wild beach”. However, it is not clear through local regulations which department should be in charge of such areas.

In fact, drowning is a leading killer of adolescents in China, especially during the summer holidays. According to a reports released by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation of the University of Washington published in 2016, drowning is the second leading killers of Chinese youngsters aged 10 to 24, coming after only road injuries.

In 2013, a total of 14,448 Chinese young people aged between 10 to 24 were reported to have drowned.

File of children receiving training class to prevent them from drowning. /VCG Photo

A report published by the School of Public Health of Peking University last year shows that in 2015, 15.6 percent of deaths among young Chinese people was due to drowning, second only to road injuries.

Around the world, drowning is also among the leading causes of deaths, and it is estimated by the WHO that every year there are an estimated 360,000 drowning deaths around the world.

As the twins’ drowning has remained in the headlines of news outlets for days, authorities have also called for stricter administrations at tourist resorts as well as increasing safety awareness among parents.

Meanwhile, there are also voices online calling to stop criticizing the mother, so as to prevent online trolling or further tragedies.