Two girls drown in Chalakudy river tragedy; one rescued

KOCHI: Two girls drowned in Chalakudy River while taking a bath on Sunday. A total of five girls went to the stream in Puthenvelikara to take a dip but were taken for surprise by the violent river overflowing during the rainy season. The incident took place at 10 am on Sunday.

Megha and Jwala Lakshmi are the deceased students. Some locals spotted the girls battling the turbulent current of the rivers and jumped to their rescue. All were shifted to the hospital immediately, but two died. One girl is continuing in critical condition.

All the girls were in Puthenvelikara to attend the death-related ceremony of their grandfather. It was one girl who first jumped into the river and got trapped. Two other girls came to her rescue but were similarly caught in the strong current. The other two girls, who were on the bank of the river gave out a scream in fear which forced locals nearby to come and undertake the rescue operations.