Five medical students drown off Lemur beach in Kanyakumari

CHENNAI: In a drastic incident, five MBBS students drowned off Lemur Beach in Kanyakumari district on Monday. Among the deceased also includes two girls. The deceased have been identified as Sarvadarsith (23), Praveen Sam (23), Gayatri (25), Venkatesh (24) and Charukavi (23), all are house surgeons of Tiruchirappalli SRM College.

Three others from the gang namely, S Neshi from Karur and R Preethi Priyanka from Theni were rescued. They are undergoing treatment at Asaripallam Medical College Hospital.

The gang initially went to Thirparappu Falls but was dismayed seeing the plummeting water level. This made the group travel to nearby Lemur Beach off the Arabian Sea. Swimming was prohibited in the region due to rough seas but they managed to reach the sea through the coconut groves without anyone noticing.

While they were playing in the sea, a massive wave clouded them and swept them into the deep sea region. Hearing the cries, the fishermen from the nearby area came to the rescue and managed to drag three students to the shore.

S Saranya, who witnessed the tragedy while being seated on the shorelines, fainted to the ground. She is currently undergoing treatment.

Kanyakumari District Superintendent of Police E Sundaravathanam confirmed about investigation progressing into the death. All of the students came to Kanyakumari to attend a wedding. In recent times, people mostly from Thiruvananthapuram have been thronging to Lemur Beach (Ganapathipuram) due to the massive popularity the serene light blue coloured beach attained on Instagram. Many even dubbed the beach to be India’s Maldives.