A pastor and two members of his congregation drowned when they were washed away by a river during a baptism, police said.
The bodies of the three were found by police divers Thursday afternoon, a few hours after the accident in the Vaal River between Vanderbiljpark and Sasolburg, south of Johannesburg.Police said the pastor was baptizing one of the men in the river when they slipped and disappeared in the murky water. The third man, who was waiting to be baptized, jumped into the water to help but also vanished.
The victims were members of the Zion Christian Church, the nation's largest black denomination.