A Belgian woman has drowned after he jumped into a lake popular with tourists to retrieve a ball while on holiday with her fiance just two days before her birthday.
The tragic drowning took place on the San Pedro Peninsula of the Nahuel Huapi Lake in the northern Patagonia region between the provinces of Río Negro and Neuquen, in Argentina, on Friday, 24th February.
The victim has been named as Maggie Kamila Kiraga, 30, a Belgian tourist of Polish descent from East Flanders, who was going to celebrate her birthday on Sunday, 26th February, according to her heartbroken dad Krzystof.
Maggie, who studied clinical psychology in the Belgian city of Ghent, but who lived in Toronto in Canada with her fiance, Simon Szalai, 30, jumped into the lake to retrieve the ball, but was unable to swim back to shore and began calling for help, according to local media.
Her fiance and others present jumped into the water to try to save her but she drowned. Her lifeless body was taken from the water much later, with those present trying to resuscitate her but to no avail.
Szalai, to whom she had become engaged just a few months ago, was then taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia. Maggie’s body was taken to a morgue where it will undergo a forensic examination to determine the cause of death.
Local media have said that she probably died of hypothermic cardiorespiratory arrest, with her heart stopping due to the cold water.
Her heartbroken father told local media on Sunday: “The loss of our daughter is too heavy for us at the moment to say anything about it. The fact that today is her birthday also makes this all the more difficult.”