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Five drown in Telangana reservoir in an attempt to take a selfie
Police said that the students had come to the Kondapochamma Sagar reservoir, which is a popular tourist spot, on a holiday
Five students from Hyderabad drowned in a reservoir while attempting to take a selfie in Siddipet district of Telangana on Saturday, police said.
The case happened at the Kondapochamma Sagar reservoir of Markuk block, which is part of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project, about 40 km away from Hyderabad.
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The deceased were identified as Dhanush (20), Sahil (19), Lohith (17), Ch Dhaneshwar (17) and Jatin (17), all students of an engineering college at Meerpet in Hyderabad. “Two others of the group were rescued and shifted to a hospital in Secunderabad,” Siddipet police commissioner B Anuradha told reporters.
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The students had come to the Kondapochamma Sagar reservoir, which is a popular tourist spot, on a holiday, she said. “They ignored safety precautions while entering the water. Holding one another’s hands, they tried to take a selfie before accidentally slipping,” the police commissioner added.
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Other tourists at the reservoir immediately raised an alarm and alerted the police, who rushed to the spot along with rescue teams. Local villagers were able to rescue two of the students — Komari Mrigank (20) and Md Ibrahim (17) — but could not save others. Later, the police recovered the bodies of the remaining five students.
“We have shifted the bodies to the government hospital for a post mortem examination and have registered a case of accident and initiated an investigation,” the police commissioner said.
Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy expressed shock and grief over the deaths and ordered the district authorities to monitor the situation closely and take appropriate relief measures.
Siddipet MLA and Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader T Harish Rao took to X, saying: “It is saddening to learn that five young men from Hyderabad drowned in Kondapochamma Sagar. The untimely death of young people with great futures has troubled me. I express my deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the deceased.”
He said the government should take appropriate precautionary measures to prevent such incidents from happening in the future and demanded that the state government announce an ex-gratia of ₹15 lakh each to the bereaved families.
