KOCHI: A 16-year-old girl drowned in the backwaters near Nettoor on Friday. The body of Fida M P was found in the evening after around 12 hours of search by the scuba divers of the fire and rescue services department, NDRF team, and fishermen.
Fida and her mother, Mumthas, of Chaliyar in Malappuram district, were staying at a rented house in Nettoor as Mumthas is employed with a private firm in Kochi.
She fell into the water around 6.30am when the duo went to dump waste behind their house, near a football ground close to the backwaters. Mumthas, who was witness to her daughter being swept away by the current, alerted other people.
Soon a fire and rescue services team arrived at the site and launched a search. Two batches of scuba divers from Ernakulam and Fort Kochi fire stations too reached the place by 7am. They were joined by the NDRF team and local fishermen in the search operation.
“We searched the entire stretch of the lake. Our scuba divers carried out underwater search as well. We were about to conclude the search operation for the day because of poor light when fishermen found the body caught in a fishing net spread near the eastern bank. Though it was not a deep part of the backwater, the undercurrent was strong due to the tidal effect. She was possibly swept away by the strong undercurrents,” a fire force officer said.
The body was shifted to the Ernakulam General Hospital. The Panangad police, based on the statement of Fida’s mother, have registered a case. Fida was a Plus One student of a government school in Panangad.
The body will be handed over to her relatives after a postmortem examination on Saturday. The search operation was led by Fire Force Ernakulam Assistant Station Officer G Suresh Kumar.
SWEPT AWAY
Fida fell into the water when she and her mother Mumthas went to dump waste behind their house close to the backwaters. As per a fire force officer, she was possibly swept away by strong undercurrents