THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Two engineering students, who were part of a five-member tourist group from Tamil Nadu, drowned in the sea off Varkala coast here on Saturday evening. The deceased are Arjun Kumar, 20, of Viruthanagar and Sudarshanan, 20, of Namakkal. Both were third year civil engineering students of Coimbatore Institute of Technology (CIT) Engineering College.
The remaining three persons are the relatives of the missing persons and classmate. They are Dileep, 16, Soorya, 20, and Prathap, 21. The coastal police and marine enforcement have begun search operations. The Varkala police have registered a case in connection with the incident.
According to the police, the incident occurred around 5.15 pm when the five-member group ventured into the sea off Papanasam coast for a bath. The group had arrived at Varkala on Friday evening. “On Saturday evening, the group decided to take bath in the beach. The five ventured into the sea and two of them were swept away. Immediately, the other three alerted the lifeguards. The search would go on late into the night,” a police official said.