4 Inter students drown in sea at Srikakulam

Srikakulam: In a tragic incident, five Intermediate students drowned in the sea when they went to have a bath in Bay of Bengal at Kalingapatnam beach in Gara mandal in the district on Sunday. Local people rescued one of them while one body was found and search is on for others.

According to information, five students studying Intermediate second year at Sri Chaitanya College in Srikakulam city went to the sea for a picnic. When they were taking a bath, they were suddenly pulled away by a strong wave.

However, one of them, L Rajasimham, was rescued by the onlookers. The other four, identified as S Praveen Kumar Reddy, Yagnamaya Panda, K Sanyay and A Sundar drowned. Of them, the body of Sundar was fished out. All the victims belong to Srikakulam city.

Kalingapatnam marine police, Gara mandal police and expert swimmers are engaged in massive search operation to retrieve the remaining three bodies. Police informed the college management and also the parents of the students about the incident.

District collector J Nivas and superintendent of police R N Ammireddy directed revenue and police officials to continue search till the bodies are found. Gara in-charge SI G Simhachalam and Kalingapatnam marine CI Ch Ambedkar are supervising searching operations.