TURIN – Oussama Cherkaoui, an 18 year-old of Moroccan origin, drowned trying to cross the river Po ‘as a bet’ on Saturday night in the centre of Turin, according to local officials. His body was recovered on Monday morning.

 Oussama Chkerkaoui started his attempt to cross on Saturday night, at around 1 a.m. He was at the Murazzi, in the company of two friends, when he had issued the challenge. It was the young man’s friends who had told the police about the bet.

 Before wading in, he took off his shoes and jacket, with his wallet with his documents inside. His friends, not seeing him, raised the alarm and the fire brigade launched a search. The Carabinieri were also on the scene. His body was fished out on Monday morning near the spot where he disappeared.

 The search, which was also carried out with the help of a drone and a helicopter, was unsuccessful. On Monday morning, at the Vittorio Emanuele I bridge, a few metres from where the 18-year-old had dived, divers fished out the body. A spot where the water, despite the dry spell, is still high.

 Oussama turned 18 years-old on 1 March. He was in the care of the social cooperative 'Difesa Fanciulli Onlus', which takes care of adolescents in fragile situations, such as minor migrants arriving in Italy unaccompanied.

 A number of educators were on the scene on Monday morning, while the forensic police proceeded with the necessary investigations. There were five of them, next to the sheet that covered Oussama's body from the gazes of onlookers. “We are shocked, trying to understand,” the educators said tearfully.

 On the bank of the Po was also an official from the Moroccan Consulate, who took the details of the young man, whose body will be autopsied to ascertain the cause of death that the police are investigating.

 Oussama’s is not the only case of drowning at the Murazzi del Po in Turin. Abdellah Doumi drowned in the same spot in 1997, when he was attacked and ended up in the water. To prevent him from returning to shore, his attackers had thrown bottles and cans at him. In August 2020, a young man jumped into the river to cool off. He, like Oussama, never returned to shore.

 eb