A 19-year-old engineering college student drowned while swimming with his friends at the Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple pond on Saturday morning.
The police identified the deceased as Deepak, a third semester production engineering student of Government Engineering College, Thrissur. They said Deepak was part of a 51-member group of students who had arrived in the city on a pleasure trip. The group had left Thrissur in a bus at 11.30 p.m. on Friday. They reached the temple around 6.30 a.m. on Saturday.
Investigators said Deepak and four other students attempted to swim across the pond at around 7.15 a.m. They said Deepak exhausted himself when he reached the middle of the pond and drowned. Fire and Rescue Services personnel fished out his body from the pond.
Deepak is a native of Palakkad. His father, R. Raman, is employed in a cement factory in Chhattisgarh. Deepak's body will be handed over to relatives after post-mortem examination on Sunday. The Fort police registered a case of unnatural death. They have recorded the statements of students and local traders who witnessed the incident.
