• Putera Muhammad Indra Shazrine Suzaini had gone to the beach to play with his friends
• He entered the sea to wash sand off his body even though he could not swim
• Strong currents swept him away from the shoreline 

SINGAPORE — The recent drowning of a 14-year-old boy in the waters off Changi Beach Park was ruled by a coroner on Thursday (March 18) as an unfortunate misadventure.

Putera Muhammad Indra Shazrine Suzaini was found on Aug 22 last year by divers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) 15m from the shoreline and pronounced dead at the scene by a paramedic.     

Investigations found that he did not know how to swim and was swept off by the strong currents after he had gone into the water with his friends to wash off sand from his body.

In giving her findings, State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam stressed the importance of educating children how to stay safe at beaches, saying that they often fail to appreciate how treacherous currents can be.

The court heard that Putera had gone to the beach that fateful day with a group of friends. They had pitched a tent, played ball games and built sandcastles. 

His mother had been aware of his whereabouts, the coroner said.

Putera and two of his friends then decided to enter the sea to wash off the sand from their bodies. 

The water level was initially at their waist but as they were pulled farther out to sea by the strong currents, the boys soon discovered that they could no longer reach the seafloor. 

At the time, the tides were 2.8m high, a tidal report found.

They began to panic and tried to return to the shore, but only one of them could swim.

The boy who could swim tried to help his friends, but the current was too strong for him, so he swam back to shore to get a life buoy and seek help.

Two bystanders, who were fishing at the time, heard the commotion and jumped into the sea to save the two boys.

One of them managed to reach Putera but had difficulty grabbing hold of him as he was struggling. When he eventually got a hold of Putera, he was dragged down by the boy and had to let go and come up to the surface to catch his breath.

He soon lost sight of Putera and swam back to shore as he was exhausted.

The other bystander managed to save Putera’s friend, who was closer to the shore, with the help of a lifebuoy.

The SCDF were alerted at about 3.30pm and its divers were activated to search for Putera’s body, which they found at about 5.30pm.

His friend, meanwhile, was taken to hospital.

An autopsy confirmed that Putera’s cause of death was drowning and the coroner did not find any basis for foul play.

Putera’s mother testified that her son often used to play in swimming pools even though he did not know how to swim.

She was present in court on Thursday but declined to speak to the media when approached.

The New Paper earlier reported that a friend of the fisherman who had tried to save Putera had warned the group not to enter the sea that day as it was raining and the tides were high.