GUNTUR: Six students drowned in Krishna River at Madipadu village in Atchampet mandal of the district on Friday evening. Sattenapalle DSP Vijay Bhaskar Reddy said seven students of Swetha Srungachalam Veda Pathasala went for swimming in the river along with a teacher.
Owing to strong current of water, six of them drowned, while one student managed to swim to safety. Expert swimmers of the village launched a search to trace the bodies of students. On receiving the news, police rushed to the spot and joined the search operation.
After an hour, the police fished out the bodies of five students while search operation is still on for the sixth student. The police said the students hailing from different States, joined the Vedic school at Maddipadu five years ago.
The deceased were identified as Harshit Shukla, Subham Trivedi, Anushman Shukla, Shiv Sharma and Nitesh Kumar Dikshit and they hailed from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the DSP informed. The bodies were shifted to government hospital for postmortem. A case has been registered.
Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan expressed his grief over drowning of students in the river. He said managements of educational institutions should lay emphasis on safety of students. Education Minister Audimulapu Suresh also expressed his shock over the drowning incident and directed that school managements should focus on safety of students.