LUCKNOW: At least six teenage boys, including two siblings, drowned at the Ganga Barrage in Kanpur on Sunday.
The boys had gone to the river to take a dip, when another boy, who was also a part of the same group, saw them drowning and rushed home to alert the parents who, in turn, informed police.
The rescue teams had fished out three bodies till late Sunday night while efforts were on to locate the remaining three. All belonged to Babupurwa locality of Kanpur outskirts. A team of Kohna and Nawabganj police stations divers reached the spot along with the divers and started the search and rescue operations.
"Six children have drowned. We have recovered three bodies, and the rescue operation for the three is still underway. We got divers, nets, and boats for the operation," Manoj Gupta, Circle Officer, Colonelganj said.
As per local sources, seven boys in the age group of 12-15 - Abhishek (14), Aman (14), Sahibe Alam (15), Kaif (12), Aditya (13), Anshu (13) and Baba (12) left home and pedalled to Ganga Barrage on Sunday. Parking the cycles on the banks of the river on the sand, they jumped into the river for a dip. Sahibe Alam did not join the gang and sat on the river bank.
Sahibe said that Aman and Abhishek moved towards the deep waters holding each other's hands and somehow slipped in. As they started drowning, they shouted for help. Consequently, others rushed to the rescue of the two but while trying to pull them out but they also got into the water.
As a result, Sahibe rushed home to tell the parents who along with the police teams reached the spot and the search for boys was launched. While the bodies of Abhishek, Aman and Aditya were located late on Sunday night. The police took the bodies of the three boys to Hallet hospital where they were declared dead upon arrival.
However the efforts were on to locate the remaining three boys.