Sree Gautham and Arun Kumar students of Coimbatore Karpagam College; more details out on Chittoor River drowning accident

PALAKKAD: Two college students died after getting caught in a whirlpool in the Shanmugham Causeway of the Chittoor River. The students who died are members of a ten-member group who had come from a private college in Coimbatore for a tourist trip. The deceased have been identified as Sree Gautham (21), son of Pandithurai, resident of Pothikulam Rice Mill Street, Ramanathapuram, Madurai; and Arun Kumar (21), son of Chakravarthy, residing at Kurunji Street, Vasantha Nagar, Neyveli. They are second-year biotechnology students at Karpagam College, Coimbatore.

The incident took place around 2 pm on Saturday. Arunkumar fell into the whirlpool while bathing in the stream below the causeway. Sree Gautham also fell into the whirlpool while trying to rescue Arunkumar. The locals reached the spot after the people who were with them raised their voices. The fire force team, which rushed to the spot after being informed by the locals, took Sree Gautham out and took him to the hospital, but could not save his life. Arunkumar's body was found and taken out after a four-hour effort. The accident occurred because the students who had gone out to bathe did not have a clear idea of the current in the area.

The rescue operation was led by a scuba team and fire force team from Chittoor. Minister K Krishnankutty reached the spot. Meenakshipuram and Chittoor police also reached the spot. The bodies were shifted to the morgue of Chittoor Govt. Taluk Hospital. The bodies will be handed over to the relatives after the postmortem.