COIMBATORE: Three students of a private college were swept away in the Bhavani river near Mettupalayam on Sunday.
Fire and Rescue Services personnel could not rescue them even after a five-hour-long operation.
The missing persons were identified as Surendran (22), Rajadurai (22) from Coimbatore and Kanisk (22) from Chennai.
According to sources, a group of ten people went to take bath in the river at Mampatti near Mettupalayam. After their bath, the youths were walking from a small ridge in the middle of the river towards the bank at 11.50 am when they have swept away by the sudden surge of water that was released from Pillur dam for power generation.
Personnel from the fire and rescue services, police and local people started searching for the trio bodies in the river by using a coracle. Until sunset, they were involved in the search. However, their bodies were not traced till the evening. The search will resume on Monday morning.