CUTTACK: A bathing outing of six friends turned tragic after two of them drowned in Mahanadi river near Kandarpur in Athagarh on Thursday.
All the six friends were swept away by strong currents in the river. While four of them were rescued by local fishermen, the rest two met a watery grave. The deceased were identified as Chinmay Das (19), a resident of Kandarpur and Sankalp Mishra (19) of Athagarh Sashan Sahi.
Chinmay and Sankalp - along with their four friends, Manmath Das, Soubhagya Sahu, Amlan and Sourabh - are all second year students of Plus III Science in Athagarh’s Gopabandhu Science College. They had come to Kandarpur and together went for an outing in a motorboat by wearing life jackets to Amangei Kuda, an island in Mahanadi river. There, they were taking bath when the ill-fated incident occurred.
While bathing near Maa Amangei shrine, all the six friends were suddenly caught in a strong current and started struggling to save themselves. Hearing their screams, local fishermen rushed to the spot and managed to rescue four of them while Chinmay and Sankalp were swept away.
Fire services personnel rushed to the spot and launched an operation along with local fishermen. Later, their bodies were retrieved after an hour of frantic search in the river.
The four rescued youths were rushed to Athagarh sub-divisional hospital for treatment from where Manmath and Soubhagya were shifted to SCB medical college and hospital in Cuttack after their condition deteriorated. Their condition is now stated to be stable.
After postmortem at Athagarh sub-divisional hospital, bodies of Chinmay and Sankalp were handed over to their family members. While Sankalp’s last rites were performed at Athagarh Sashan Sahi cremation ground, Chinmay’s funeral was conducted at Kandarpur. A pal of gloom has descended on entire Athagarh locality after the incident.