VISAKHAPATNAM: A fun, weekend outing of six school students turned tragic after one student drowned and two others went missing here at Appikonda beach at Pedagantyada mandal under Steel Plant police station limits Sunday evening. The deceased was identified as Prasanna (13), a class VIII student, while the missing students are Rupak and Akhilesh.
The other three, Nithin, Bharat Raju and Upendra have been rescued by nearby fishermen. All the students were residing at Sector 4 and 5 in Ukkunagaram township.
According to Steel Plant PS inspector B Venkat Rao, the six were students of classes VIII and IX at DAV public school in the Steel Plant.
Being Sunday, they went out to play in the afternoon and by the evening came to Appikonda beach.
Police said that though the locals warned them against entering the waters as the sea was rough, the children ignored the warnings and entered the blue waters. They were frolicking in the waves when all of a sudden where all of a sudden high tides pulled in all six of them.
A local fishermen who was on the spot, jumped in and saved three of them, while the rest went missing. Police, after receiving information, rushed to the spot and immediately launched search operations.
They found Prasanna’s. When last reports came in, the police are still searching for the other two missing children.
A case has been registered and investigation is on.