17-year-old French prospect Issa Toure passes away / News - Basketnews.com

Toure drowned in the south of France while participating in a basketball camp.

Credit: Twitter/javcm_basket Credit Twitter/javcm_basket

The life of a young French basketball player was tragically taken away on Saturday.

17-year-old Issa Toure, who played for the J.A. Vichy-Clermont Metropole in the country's Elite U18 League, drowned in the waters near the Canet-en-Roussillon beach in the south of France.

Toure participated in a basketball camp. The disappearance of the teenager was reported around 4:30 PM local time but it took until 6 PM for an emergency alert to be given.

A large search force, including divers, firefighters, gendarmes, a helicopter, and a Falcon 50 maritime surveillance aircraft, was deployed, local reports indicate. Toure's body was found by divers off the beach and pronounced dead around 6:50 PM after failed attempts of resuscitation.

"We are all a bit in shock at the club," the club's president Yann Le Diouris told La Montagne. "It has disturbed the entire team. It's terrible. We think of his family."

The organization has started a fundraiser with more than 1000 euros raised in the first couple of hours.

"All the leaders, employees, players, supporters, and volunteers wish to present to Issa's family and loved ones their most sincere condolences. Issa was a young man full of ambition, always smiling and appreciated by all his teammates and members of the club. A tribute will be paid to him at the start of the season," the organization announced.

Toure averaged 10.1 points per game last season.

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