A joyous picnic at the Radio Syd beach turned into tragedy for a Banjul family after three of them drowned while swimming on Saturday evening.

Marian Baldeh, 29, Haddy Sowe, 20 and Mariama Sanyang, 16 all died.

Marian, a kindergarten teacher, was married with two children. One of her friends said: “She was intelligent, caring and honest. She loves children.”

The friend added: “Both Haddy and Mariama, fondly known as Sarian, were under her care. Haddy was attending Muslim Senior Secondary School (Arabic section), while Sarian was in Grade 7 at St. Augustine’s Junior Secondary School (Pa Joof).”

What’s On-Gambiawas unable to establish all the details behind what happened. But there are speculations that one of the young women ran into trouble swimming and others went to help.