A 34-year-old man has died after drowning in the Elegushi Beach, in Lagos State, during a church hangout event.

The victim, identified as John, was a member of an unnamed Ikorodu-based church which had organised a picnic for its youths on Saturday.

Trouble, however, started when the members were about to leave the beach that Saturday afternoon but couldn’t locate him anywhere.

It was learned that as the church members began searching for him, someone informed them that they had seen him go into the water. Lifeguards and divers were alerted but efforts to locate him in the water that Saturday proved abortive.

It was gathered that his body was only recovered by lifeguards on Tuesday afternoon at the beach.

A source who witnessed the event but doesn’t want to be named said, “A church from Ikorodu had come to Elegushi beach for a hangout on Saturday. They were just young people who came around to have fun; about 35 of them came that Saturday.

“It happened that late in the afternoon when they were packing up to leave, they called everyone to make sure that they were all accounted for, 35 of them, before they left. That was how they realised that one of them, John, was missing.

“Then they started searching for him that evening. Then, someone told one of them that he had seen the guy walk towards the water thinking he knew how to swim.

“The group then called lifeguards and divers to help search for him that Saturday, but they didn’t find him until yesterday, Tuesday, at about 1 p.m., when they recovered his body at the beach.”

The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, confirmed the incident adding: “The family of the victim has been contacted and the body of the victim has also been deposited at the Yaba General Hospital for an autopsy.”