A fish­er­man in the Blan­chisseuse area sprung in­to ac­tion on Fri­day in a bid to save a group of hik­ers who got in­to dif­fi­cul­ties while swim­ming at Tur­tle Rock Bay, in the vicin­i­ty of Paria Bay. How­ev­er, one of them drowned. The fish­er­man, de­spite the rough and chop­py wa­ters, still man­aged to re­trieve the vic­tim's body.

The vic­tim has been iden­ti­fied as Qadir Shah, 31, of Mur­ray Park, Beau­car­ro Road, Freeport.

Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­port, at about 10 am a re­port of a sus­pect­ed drown­ing was re­ceived from the Com­mand Cen­tre at Tur­tle Rock, in the vicin­i­ty of Paria Bay.

Po­lice said they re­ceived in­for­ma­tion that a group of about 15 peo­ple went hik­ing in that area with­out no­ti­fy­ing the Blan­chisseuse po­lice.

Whilst at Tur­tle Rock Bay, Shah got in­to dif­fi­cul­ties and his body sub­merged in the chop­py wa­ters.

A fish­er­man went to the group's as­sis­tance and was able to res­cue the oth­er hik­ers.

As­sis­tance was sought from the Coast Guard.