At least eight persons drowned while bathing in the Meshwo River in Gujarat's Gandhinagar district on Friday evening, September 13. Those drowned were residents of Vasna Sogthi village in Dehgam taluka, said Sub Divisional Magistrate B B Modiya.
The incident took place near the village. Mr Modiya said he reached the spot to supervise the search and rescue operation.
"We have recovered eight bodies from the river. Since it is still unclear how many people went into the water, search is still on. Those dead were locals, but they might have misjudged the river's depth at the spot," he said, adding that the water level rose recently due to an under-construction check dam a little distance away.
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According to the Gandhinagar Deputy SP DT Gohil, nine youths came for swimming in the Meshwo River in the afternoon on Friday. They were bathing during the Ganesh Visarjan. Out of those nine youths, one was started drowning while bathing to save him others jumped in to save him.
"There is Vasna Sogathi village in the Dehgam tehsil. 9 youths from the village came to the dam on Meshwo River at noon. They were bathing here when an idol of Lord Ganesh came for Visarjan. Out of those 9 people, one was drowning while bathing. So, other people also came to save him...Till now we have recovered 8 bodies from here. An eyewitness has said that only 8 people drowned. So accordingly, we have recovered all the bodies...Still, the teams of SDRF and NDRF are deployed here to ensure that anyone else is not missing in this area," said Deputy SP DT Gohil.
NDRF Team Commander Lakhan Raghuvanshi said, "Gandhinagar NDRF team is carrying out the rescue operation...8 bodies have been recovered and according to the villagers, one person is missing...Rescue operation is being conducted by a team of divers...A team of NDRF and SDRF is carrying out the rescue operation."