Pattaya-
A seventeen year old teenage boy was pronounced dead by rescue workers last evening after he attempted to recover a lost football in the Nongprue Reservoir.
The boy, Nattapon Li, 17, was playing football with friends at the adjacent Nongprue Reservoir Park outside of Pattaya City. According to a friend of Nattapon, 14 year old Kittiphong Anachot, the football flew into the reservoir and floated a ways into the lake after an errant kick. Nattapon decided to enter the water to recover the football.
Nattapon ran into trouble and Kittiphong swam out to assist him but also struggled as neither boy were experienced swimmers.
Other bystanders and friends managed to help rescue Kittiphong but Nattapon had vanished under the water. A rescue team with scuba diving equipment was called and around 9:30 PM after several hours of searching the body of Nattapon was found submerged in about three meters of water.
The mother of the boy was at the scene of the accident and was inconsolable, stating to The Pattaya News that her son had been a star football player at Pattaya Academy and had been in the process of being scouted for National and professional level teams. His dream, she said, was to be a professional football player.
