Janjgir, Sep 12 (PTI) One student drowned and two others were swept away in the Hasdeo river while they were on a picnic in Chhattisgarh’s Janjgir-Champa district, police said on Saturday.
The incident took place on Friday in Devri village within the jurisdiction of the Balauda police station, Station House Officer (SHO) Manohar Sinha said.
Eight students, including women, from a pharmacy course at a college in Bilaspur had reached Devri for a picnic. While the students were taking selfies near the river, one of them slipped and fell into the water, he said.
Two other students jumped into the river in their attempt to save him but were also swept away by the strong current, the official said.
The students were identified as Murari Sahu (22), Pawan Lal (22) and Sachin Singh (23).
After being alerted, police reached the spot and launched a search operation with the help of Home Guard divers. The search continued till late Friday evening, but there was no trace of the trio, Sinha said.
On Saturday morning, a State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) team joined the operation. Searches were conducted at different locations along the river, with drones also being used to locate the students.
During the operation, a body was recovered around 1.5 km downstream from the spot where the students had reportedly gone missing.
The body was identified as that of Pawan Lal, who was a resident of Chirmiri in Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur district, he said.
The search for the other two students is underway, the SHO added. PTI COR TKP NR
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