VISAKHAPATNAM: Six persons, including five children aged below six years, drowned and two others went missing in River Sileru in Visakhapatnam when two country boats capsized late Monday night. Police said 11 persons were travelling in the ill-fated boats when the mishap occurred. Three of them swam to safety. The deceased and survivors are migrant workers from Konduguda in Malkangiri district of Odisha. They were returning to their hometowns from Hyderabad following lockdown in Telangana.
On reaching Sileru from Hyderabad, they chose to travel in the country boats to evade police as the workers feared that they might have been stopped at the inter-state border in view of Covid-19 spread. Odisha is allowing only those who got Covid negative certificate or those who took two doses of vaccine. Others need to undergo quarantine for 14 days.
Sileru SI Ranjit said about 35 migrant workers from Hyderabad reached Jonnalamamidi village on foot after crossing the checkpost in a vehicle. They took two boats at Jonnalamamidi to cross the river. The boats dropped 17 workers on the other side of the river bank safely in the first trip. During the second trip, the boats capsized midway. When the first boat capsized, some of the occupants tried to catch hold of the second boat to save their lives. In the process, the second boat also overturned.