A weekend picnic turned fatal for five intermediate students as they drowned in a pit at Chilumurulanka in Kolluru mandal, on Saturday afternoon.
The five students, all boys aged 17-18 years, were among a group of nine students who went out for a picnic after completing their pre-final examinations. They were students of Nehru Niketan Junior College, Bose Road, Tenali.
They reached Chilumurulanka, on the river bank. An innocuous pit located amid sandy dunes lured the five students who ventured into the waters whose depth they could not fathom. As they began drowning, their friends could only watch in horror.
Kolluru Sub Inspector K. Venkateswara Rao said all the five bodies were extricated from the pit.