Two minor students drown in Kuakhai River in Bhubaneswar during Goddess Saraswati idol immersion

In an unfortunate incident, two teenage students drowned in the Kuakhai river while taking a bath after Goddess Saraswati idol immersion at Ranga Bazar under Balianta police station limits in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.

Both the deceased were 15 years old and identified as Sikun Senapati of Ganga Nagar and Dibyajayoti Mahalik of Unit-6 in Bhubaneswar.

Sources reported that a group of six students belonging to a private tutorial had gone along with their teacher and another staff member to the Kuakhai river bank for the Goddess Saraswati's idol immersion. All of them subsequently decided to take a dip in the river but were swept away by strong currents and loose sand.

While four of them managed to swim ashore and were subsequently rescued, the other two were failed to swim against the river and drowned. Fire department personnel reached the spot and launched a frantic search for the duo.

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After about an hour of search operations, the drowned students were pulled out to the bank, where CPR was applied. However, they did not respond to the primary care and were declared dead.

Sources also mentioned that the tuition teacher and the support staff were the only two adults present at the site. Further, they had reportedly decided to carry out the immersion ceremony in the Kuakhai River owing to the lack of water in the temporary pond designated by authorities for immersion.

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Till the last reports, police took stock of the situation and were interrogating the tuition teacher for possible negligence. However, no additional comments were offered by the authorities.

It is pertinent to note that four people had died after drowning in the very same stretch of the river during Holi celebrations last year.