Google Maps turn awry, tourists land in Kerala pond

Kottayam (Kerala): Too much reliance on Google Maps resulted in a tourist group from Hyderabad driving into a pond near here at Kurupunthura in the wee hours on Saturday.

The four youths from Hyderabad had visited the picturesque hill station destination at Munnar and were driving to the famed boating destination at Alappuzha.

The incident occurred around 3 a.m. when the youths, en route to Alappuzha, used Google Maps to navigate.

Due to heavy rains, the road, the tourists were travelling on, was covered by water overflowing from the pond, and as they were unfamiliar with the area, they landed in the water body.

"We were taken aback and soon realised it was water all around. We knew we had to escape and did it by opening the back side of the vehicle," said one of the tourists.

The vehicle was retrieved from the pond.

"This is not the first time such a thing has happened. Long back a troupe of late actor Rajan P. Dev had missed the original route and landed in the pond. There are no warning signals on the road," said locals.