The Fire Services personnel on Friday recovered the bodies of all four students who had gone missing in the waters of Mahanadi River near Bhadimula Ghat in Cuttack yesterday.
The four students went missing while bathing in Mahanadi River near the ghat on Thursday afternoon. The body of one of them, identified as Khetrabasi Behera, was recovered from the river last night, while the mortal remains of Chandan Behera and Akash Bahalia and Subham Sethi were fished out today.
All the boys were classmates and studying in Class 8 and aged between 13 and 14 years. They are the residents of Potapokhari in Nayabazar area of Millennium city.
As per reports, Khetrabasi and his friends came back to their houses following school at around 1 pm and after having food, all of them went for an outing to the Bhadimula Ghat on their bicycles.
The four students reportedly drowned while taking a bath in the river. As they did not return home after a couple of hours, their family members launched a frantic search to trace their whereabouts. Later they found four bicycles near the ghat in the evening and informed the police.
“He came back home at 1 pm and went outside to one of his friend’s house who stays nearby after having food. When he did not come home till 5 pm, we started searching him but failed,” informed the mother of a deceased student.