Three teenagers from Kollam, on a leisure trip to Varkala near here, drowned in a temple pond on Monday.
All the three – Anu Anilkumar, 19, of Kottiyam; Tony S. Jacob, 19, of Adichanalloor; and Abin J. Philip, 18, of Karunagapally – are first year B.Com. students of the Sree Narayana College, Kollam. They had set out in a group of eight from Kollam, four of them on two motorbikes and the rest on bus, after holidays were declared due to rain, to spend the day on the Varkala beach.
According to the Varkala police, the group had first played a cricket match at Paripally around 11 a.m., and then headed to the beach. The group is said to have then reached the Janardhana Swami temple at Varkala around 3 p.m., where the eight straightaway went for a swim in the temple pond. Soon Anu, Tony and Ebin were drowned, the police said. The bodies were traced soon after and were shifted to the Varkala Government Hospital. The post-mortem examination will be conducted on Tuesday.
Falls to estuary
In a separate incident, a 47-year-old man who went para-gliding was reported missing since 4 p.m. from near Muthalapozhi under the Kadinamkulam police station limits. According to the police, Noushad, son of Majeed of Kazhakuttam, was a seasoned para-glider and used to train people in gliding.
What went wrong on Monday is yet to be ascertained with the police suspecting technical glitches behind the accident. He is suspected to have fallen into the Muthalapozhi estuary, from where he could have been swept into the sea. A Coast Guard ship was on its way to the spot for search, the police said.
