SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Officials in Costa Rica say some foreign tourists were among five people killed in a rafting accident on a swollen river in the west-central part of the country. Three rafts flipped on the Naranjo river Saturday around 3 p.m. and the five victims were carried away downstream, according to the Judicial Investigation Department. Marco Monge, press officer for Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Organization, identified the American victims as Ernesto Sierra, Jorge Caso, Sergio Lorenzo and Andres Denis, Florida's WPLG reported. A fifth person, a Costa Rican guide -- Kevin Thompson Reid -- was also killed. 'Fourteen tourists and three guides on board three rafts, and a kayaker, were on the Naranjito river in Quepos, Puntarenas when the accident occurred,' Alexander Morales of the Red Cross told AFP. When rescuers arrived, they found three rafts and one kayak overturned, said Luis Guzman, National Deputy spokesman for Costa Rica’s Red Cross. Costa Rica's President Carlos Alvarado expressed his "dismay" at the incident and said in a statement that he had instructed authorities to provide all necessary support to the victims' families.
Four U.S. tourists are killed in Costa Rica after a rafting accident on a swollen river.