CHENNAI: Three college students who went for a swim in a pool of water collected in an abandoned stone quarry were feared drowned at Keerapakkam near Guduvanchery on Wednesday. Body of one of the victims was recovered on Thursday morning, search is on to trace the other two. Police said the students were part of a five-member group that trespassed into the locked quarry premises.
Police identified the victims as Deepak Sarathy (20) of Udumalpet, Mohammad Ismail (19) of Mannarkudi, and Vijaysarathy (19) of Dharmapuri. They were all second-year students of a private engineering college in Kattankulathur. On Wednesday, they had gone to the water-filled quarry with their friends Surya and Abdul.
“The quarry has been shut for nearly 10 years. There were boards to keep away trespassers but the group climbed over the gate and went inside,” a police officer said. The five of them went to the water and started swimming. However, Deepak, Mohammad and Vijayasarathy went into deeper parts and drowned.
Three students did not know swimming, say their friends
According to their friends, the three did not know swimming, police said. As they started struggling, Surya and Abdul tried to rescue them but could not. They rushed to the local villagers and alerted them. Police and fire and rescue department personnel rushed to the scene.
The officer said, “A rescue operation went on till late night but none of them were found or rescued. The rescue operation then resumed on Thursday and around 11am, Vijayasarathy’s body was recovered.” Vijayasarathy’s body was sent to a government hospital for postmortem.