Tanzanians rescue man whose car plunged into Indian Ocean

One man who is yet to be identified was lucky to be rescued after his car plunged into the Indian Ocean around Coco Beach area near the Police Officers’ Mess in Dar es Salaam.

The cause of the bizarre incident that involved a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado remains unknown.

Eyewitnesses say the incident happened on Monday, October 4, around 7 pm when they saw the car in the water with only the driver struggling inside.

Speaking on the incident, the Kinondoni Regional Police Commander Ramadhan Kingai said there were no casualties in the incident.

He, however, said they were waiting for the man's health to stablise so that they can continue with investigations into the circumstances that led to the accident.

The onlookers immediately intervened and managed to rescue the driver and rushed him to the hospital after he was overwhelmed by large waves.

"I got a call and was told there was a Landcruiser car in the ocean. I took a motorcycle and arrived at the scene to find the task force had already rescued the man and had already rushed him to hospital," said Coco Beach Rescue and Conservation Chairman Ahmed Abdallah.

According to him youths who live near the area spent about two hours to rescue the car from the water but it was not an easy task due to the area where the vehicle plunged.

“The rescue mission took longer than two hours because firstly due to the strong winds that were blowing at that time causing large waves,” he said.

He said that the success of the mission was mainly due to the proper understanding of the area where the vehicle had plunged into the ocean