Five members of a family were feared drowned after the car they were travelling in fell into a river in Upper Assam’s Sivasagar district on Saturday evening, police said on Sunday.
“The search and rescue operation is going on. A team of National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force is on the spot,” said Bolin Deori, additional superintendent of police.
Three boats have been pressed into service for the rescue operation this morning, but it was hampered by the heavy current of the river, the sources said.
Police said the Guwahati-based family of Haren Bora, a 58-year-old businessman, was visiting their ancestral village Dichial in Sivasagar. “The incident happened right next to the village,” Deori said, adding that the driver of the car seems to have lost control and it fell into the Dikhow river after breaking a dyke at Gaurisagar Dikhowmukh on Saturday evening.
The occupants of the car included Bora’s wife Phunu Bora, a government official in Guwahati, daughters Dikhsita Bora, an MBA student, Nikshita Bora, a student of higher secondary first year, and the businessman’s 80-year-old mother Punon Bora.