VARANASI: Five teenaged boys drowned in the Ganga river here while taking a bath on Friday morning.
Initial reports said that the boys were making a TikTok video when one of them slipped into the water while the others drowned while trying to save him.
However, PRO Sanjay Tripathi in the SSP office denied this and said that they had waded into deep waters and drowned.
Divers were pressed into service to rescue the boys, whose bodies were later retrieved.
The bodies were taken to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital in Ram Nagar where the doctors declared all the five as brought dead.
The deceased have been identified as Tausif, 19, Fardeen, 14, Saif,15, Rizwan,15, and Saki, 14.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed grief over the incident. He has asked senior officials to provide relief to the family members of the deceased.