A young man was allegedly attacked and dragged by a crocodile in River Gandak on Wednesday afternoon, and has not been found.
Manoj Sahani, 22, a resident of village Sukrauli Madanpur, under the Khadda police station of district Kushinagar, had gone to attend a call of nature by the riverside when the attack took place.
Locals working in a field nearby claimed to have witnessed the crocodile taking away the man. Villagers, police personnel and forest department officials started rescue operations but failed to recover the body of the man.
Officials said that the current in the river was rapid which hampered rescue operations while a local resident, Ghutan, said that the crocodile was in bushes, from where it first attacked Manoj and later dragged him into the river.
On Thursday morning, the National Disaster Response Force started rescue operations and claimed to find parts of the body after four hours of effort.
In another incident that took place in Deoria city on Wednesday afternoon, two siblings drowned in a water body near Hanuman mandir while a companion was rescued.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the incident and directed district officials to provide all help to the members of the family.
{{/usCountry}}Chief minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the incident and directed district officials to provide all help to the members of the family.
{{/usCountry}}Officials said all three companions had gone to take bath in the water body but two drowned when they went in too deep.
Police personnel along with divers reached the spot and recovered the bodies half an hour after the incident. They were rushed to district hospital Deoria where doctors declared two of them dead.
Police station in-charge of Deoria Kotwali, Dinesh Mishra, confirmed the deaths and said the deceased were identified as Kajal, 12 and his brother Natey alias Chotu, 10.
Abdur Rahman