Three men from Kaohsiung drowned on Wednesday while allegedly swimming in a mountain stream at Haishengong (海神宮), a popular, but restricted scenic spot in Pingtung County’s Sandimen Township (三地門), local authorities said yesterday.
Pingtung prosecutors said a postmortem examination, which was completed at about noon yesterday, found the three men died from drowning and no suspicious injuries were found.
The postmortem examination report was released to the relatives of the victims, prosecutors said, adding that they had no comment on the cause of death.
Photo courtesy of the Pingtung County Government
The Pingtung County Bureau of Fire and Emergency Services received a report at 3:23pm that several people were drowning at a location about a 30-minute hike from the Haishengong parking lot.
Rescue teams were immediately dispatched to the site and emergency responders pulled the three men from the stream, but none showed vital signs at the scene, bureau head Lee Pin-cheng (李彬正) said.
They were rushed to hospital, but later pronounced dead.
Police identified the victims as two 44-year-old men surnamed Huang (黃) and Kuo (郭), and a 38-year-old man surnamed Lin (林). The three had traveled together from Kaohsiung to spend the day at Haishengong, authorities said.
Officials said that Haishengong is on private land and is not open to the public.
Rainfall in the mountains during the plum rain and summer flood seasons can quickly cause flash floods, making the area especially dangerous, said officials, who urged visitors to stay away from the site.
More than 20 landowners of Haishengong were to join a meeting last night to discuss how to manage the place, said Hua Hsiu-chin (華秀琴), tourism division director of the Sandimen Township office.
According to fire bureau records, four incidents have occurred at Haishengong in the past five years, resulting in six deaths and one injury.
Additional reporting by Fion Khan
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