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SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – Four US tourists and a Costa Rican guide were killed in a rafting accident, authorities said Sunday.
Three rafts sailed on the Naranjo River around 3 pm (1 pm ET) Saturday, and the five victims were swept downstream, according to the Forensic Investigation Department. Other passengers managed to hang on the rafts and some were rescued by another kayak guide.
The department identified the dead as Ernesto Sierra, Jorge Caso, Sergio Lorenzo and Andres Dennis, all 25 to 35 years old. He did not list the hometowns for them. The local guide was Kevin Thompson Reid.
A total of 14 tourists were on the rafts, accompanied by five guides.
Authorities said the river was swollen by the rain and that the National Emergency Commission had maintained an alert in the area due to the risk of flooding.
The Red Cross said the rafts had been overturned near Liverpool's Quepos.
When the rescuers arrived, they found three rafts and an overturned kayak, said Luis Guzman, deputy national spokesperson for the Costa Rica Red Cross.
They managed to save 13 people, all unscathed, who survived by standing on the rafts, he said. The five people who did not survive were found further down the river, he added.
The tourists were white-water rafting in a river that was not part of the national park, but rather in a forest that was "a region full of nature," said Guzman.
The Americans arrived in Costa Rica on Thursday and had rented a house in Playa Hermosa de Jaco, according to the government. According to the Argentine news agency La Nacíon, they were present to celebrate the bachelor party boy survivors.
The President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, expressed his dismay about the accident on Twitter.
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