Eleven, including five kids, drown in two separate incidents in Bihar on Sunday

Eight persons were drowned in the Ganga at Mastana ghat in Raghopur riverine belt of Vaishali district while three women drowned in Baghmati in Samastipur district of north Bihar when a small boat capsized.

Eleven persons were drowned in two separate incidents in Bihar, on Sunday.

Representative image

Eight persons, including five children, were drowned in the Ganga at Mastana ghat in Raghopur riverine belt of Vaishali district on Sunday, while they were bathing in the river. Six bodies were fished out while two others were still missing till reports last came in.

All the deceased belonged to the same family.

In another incident, three women drowned in the Baghmati river in Samastipur district of north Bihar when a small boat carrying over 12 people capsised. While some people swam to safety, five others were rescued, deputy superintendent of police in-charge of Rosera sub-division, Ajit Kumar, said.

In the first inident, the victims had crossed the Ganga from Patna side of the river and gone to Raghopur side for a picnic. A few of them entered the river for a bath but apparently got stuck in the sand mounds and subsequently started drowning. In a bid to save them, others jumped into the river and all were drowned by the undercurrent of the river, locals said.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar condoled the deaths and announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh for next of kin of the deceased.

The bodies identified till Sunday evening were of Ranju Devi, 40, Choti, 7, Sahil , 10, Gautam , 11 and Rajni Kumari, 10. All the deceased hailed from Dariyapur in Fatuha sub-division of Patna district.

A boy and a girl were still missing and were believed to have drowned, too. Their bodies have not been recovered even though divers of the state disaster response force (SDRF) carried search operations till evening, reports said.

Patna district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agrawal confirmed six deaths, adding, two more persons were also believed drowned.

“Eight persons have been drowned in the incident. The administration has fished out six bodies and search is going on to recover the two other bodies”, he said. The Patna DM, however, clarified the deceased were not drowned following any boat capsize, as initially reported

Sources said the incident at Mastana ghat took place around 10 am but locals got information about the incident only in the afternoon as the site of occurrence was located at a remote place and far from Patna.

Locals said there were no danger mark board put up at the drowning site, which is considered dangerous for swimming. They also said the divers reached the site of the incident late in the afternoon.

This is the second major incident of drowning in Patna district this year. On the Makar Sankranti day on January 14, 24 persons were drowned after their boat capizised in the river near Patna.

In case of the Samastipur incident, locals jumped into the river and fished out the bodies of the three women, aged between 20 and 30 years. “All those on the boat were involved in the business of cattle-rearing. They crossed the river routinely to collect fodder,” Rosera DSP in charge Kumar said.

The boat capsized near Madhurapur Dharmpur Ghat.