Tragedy struck at a beach in Maharashtra’s Raigad district on Thursday after eight students drowned while on a picnic. The Class XI and XII students were part of a group from Winners Academy, a private coaching institute in Alandi, Pune district, police said.
A police official said a group of 48 people, comprising 25 boys, 17 girls and six teachers, had gone for a picnic at the beach in Raigad.
The eight students who died ventured into the sea and were swept away after misjudging the depth of the water and the current, he added.
Search and rescue teams rushed to the spot after receiving an alert and recovered the bodies, he said.
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“By the evening, even the missing student’s body was found. Local residents and rescue workers pulled all eight boys out and rushed them to the primary health centre at Borli for treatment, where they were declared dead,” a senior police officer said.
Police personnel and local authorities are carrying out further legal and administrative formalities, the official said.
2 teens drown in Palghar river while shooting reels
{{/usCountry}}Police personnel and local authorities are carrying out further legal and administrative formalities, the official said.
2 teens drown in Palghar river while shooting reels
{{/usCountry}}In a separate incident, two weeks ago, a reel-making outing during the ongoing Ganeshotsav holiday turned fatal for two teenage friends in Palghar district of Maharashtra. The boys jumped into the flowing waters of the Vaitarna River while a friend filmed them on his mobile phone on Wednesday afternoon. They misjudged the depth of the water and drowned.
According to the police, the three boys, who were school friends and neighbours from Vivek Nagar in Wada, had gone out to make reels on September 16, taking advantage of the school holidays for Ganeshotsav.
The trio first visited Tilseshwar locality near Wada, along the banks of the Vaitarna River, in the morning to shoot reels. After recording a few videos, they returned home in the afternoon.
Around 3 pm, the boys stepped out again to make more reels and travelled to Nadipada near Umrothe village, located along the Pinjal River. At around 4 pm, while they were filming, Gitesh Patil reportedly jumped into the flowing river, followed by Manav Rathod. Their friend, Amey Jadhav, was recording the two boys on his mobile phone.