The child was swimming with his mother in the village river

A San Pablo mother is mourning the death of her son, Ernesto Alonzo Salabia, 4, who drowned in the village river at about 2:30 Sunday afternoon while swimming with her.

Doctor Mario Estrada Bran, who conducted the post-mortem on the boy, certified the cause of death to be asphyxia due to drowning.

Serlin Diaz, 25, a Honduran domestic, told police that she and Ernesto went to the river to swim. While swimming, her son suddenly disappeared from her side. She immediately searched for him, and later found him in a deep area under the water. He was already dead.

Ernesto was taken to the Southern Regional Hospital in Dangriga, where he was declared dead on arrival.