TIRUNELVELI: Three devotees, including two teen girls, drowned while taking bath in the Thamirabarani river near Sorimuthu Ayyanar Temple here on Thursday, while another devotee was rescued by the public. The Kallidaikurichi police identified the deceased persons as N Sankareswaran (40), a resident of Vanniyampatti near Srivilliputhur, M Menaha (18) and her sister M Solai Eswari (15) of Pallapatti near Sivakasi.
According to sources, one Murugan of Pallapatti in Virudhunagar visited the Sorimuthu Ayyanar Temple at Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve in the Western Ghats, along with his family. After offering prayers, they decided to take bath in the river.
As the deceased persons and one J Mareeswaran (28), who did not know swimming, started to drown, onlookers rushed to the spot. While they managed to rescue Mareeswaran, attempts to save Sankareswaran, Menaha and Solai Eswari went in vain.
Upon being alerted by the devotees, fire and rescue services personnel of Ambasamudram, led by official Palavesam, came to the temple.
They recovered the three bodies, and shifted it to Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital for postmortem. The Kallidaikurichi police have registered a case in this connection, and an inquiry is under way.