In all 13 youths revellers drowned in water bodies when they went for having a bath after playing colours during Holi across Telangana on Sunday. While five persons died in Warangal district, three met watery grave in Siddipet, two each in Bhadrachalam and Karimnagar and one in Nalgonda.
Special Correspondent from Bhadradri-Kothagudem adds: Tragedy struck a group of Holi revellers when two youth drowned in the Godavari in the famous pilgrim centre of Bhadrachalam on Sunday. Three other revellers had a miraculous escape when they were saved by the local police assisted by swimmers, sources said.
Police source said a group of nine local youth had gone to the Godavari to take bath after celebrating the festival in the temple town.
Five of them ventured into the Godavari even as four others waited on the shores. They got stuck in the slush at the bottom of the river a few metres away from the caution board installed in the river. On noticing them drowning, their friends yelled for help. Policemen on bandobust duty at the bathing ghat managed to pull three of them out of the river with the help of local youth.
However, two others met a watery grave at a treacherous point of the river, sources said. The deceased have been identified as B Ramesh, 19, and Ramprasad, 19, both students of a degree college in the temple town, said P. Karunakar, Sub-Inspector of Police, Bhadrachalam town. The bodies of the two youth have been retrieved from the river, he told The Hindu .
Staff Reporter adds from Siddipet: Two children drowned in a tank in Varadarajupalli village of Toguta mandal under Mirdoddi police station limits on Sunday.
According to B. Satish, Sub-Inspector of Police, Ch. Prashanth (12) and V. Srikanth (10) went to the tank along with parents to wash sheep after celebrations.
While the sheep reached the bund, the children went missing. Noticing it late, the parents managed to rescue the children and shifted them to a hospital where doctors declared them dead. Mirdoddi police registered a case and are investigating.
In another incident, one Srinivas Reddy went for a swim at Anantasagar village of Kondapur mandal in Sangareddy district and the authorities after long search, said he had died.
Special Correspondent adds from Karimnagar: The revelry claimed two lives in two incidents in Karimnagar and Jagtial districts. In Karimnagar Suresh (25) of Jyothinagar, who went for a bath in the Lower Manair Dam Reservoir was feared drowned. In Namapur village a youth Saikumar (18) got drowned in the SRSP canal waters.
A student met watery grave in Udayasamudram tank of Nalgonda district on Sunday when he went for washing colours in the water body.