SAMBALPUR: Two Class IX students went missing after being swept away in Mahanadi near Sadakghat along the ring road in the city on Friday.
While a search operation was launched by fire personnel, it was halted due to darkness after nearly three hours. The missing children were identified as Himanshu Kushwa of Krishna Nagar and A Kanishka of Tiwari Gali within Khetrajpur police limits.
As per reports, they were playing near the ghat at around 4:30 pm and somehow slipped into the river. The two were spotted by locals when they shouted for help. Police and fire teams reached the spot and launched a search operation.
Fire officer, Sudam Kisku said, “Two fire teams from Sambalpur and Maneswar were engaged in the search. Later, an ODRAF team also joined the operation. However, as the boys could not be found even after more than three hours of search, we had to halt the operation. The teams will resume the search on Saturday morning.”