In a shocking incident on Tuesday, six school students were swept away while taking bath in the Barang-Puri canal near Hanuman Batika here on the outskirts of the capital city. While two were rescued alive, two bodies were fished out and the rest two were untraced till the evening.
According to reports, 14 boys including class-IX students of Rail Vihar phase-1 Government High School of Chandrasekharpur area in Bhubaneswar had visited Nandankanan Zoological Park at 11 am.
While coming out of the zoo in the afternoon, one of the boys suggested the group to take bath in nearby Barang-Puri canal. After a few minutes of discussion, the group headed towards the canal.
Out of the total 14 boys, six got prepared for bathing in the canal.Other eight remained busy in visiting places including the Hanuman Batika near the canal. While taking bath in the canal, one among them, Kausal Patra, slipped into deep water. Suddenly the five others came in to rescue their friend, but failed. They too were swept away in the current, said a student Sachin Subudhi.
However, as Kausal was crying for help, a local youth jumped into the canal and rescued the former and another boy, while the rest four were not traceable.
After getting information from the locals, fire brigade and the local police rushed to the spot and started rescue operation. The fire brigade led by fire officer Prafulla Ojha fished out a student, Abhijeet Sabat, after few minutes of search.
As the water level was high, Mundali barrage SDO Anant Charan Satpathy closed gates of the canal to help the fire brigade officials to fish out the bodies of the missing students.
later, a team of the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) reached the spot and started its search operation. After intensive search, the team found second body of Bunty Digal alias Bablu in the evening.
The search operation was stopped in the evening, said a fire officer, but it would be started from Wednesday early morning.
Meanwhile, teachers of the school clarified that the students were absent on Tuesday.Some students said that they planned the visit the park after a teacher rusticated them from the class for playing during the recess period.