Bullock cart swept away in flooding drain, four drown

Rajkot: Four persons, including a woman and her two children, drowned after seven persons of a family got swept away in a flooded natural water drain in Amreli district on Tuesday.
All the seven were travelling in a bullock cart which got swept away in the turbulent waters. The incident happened at around 4:30pm in Hamapur village of Bagasra taluka. Three other persons were rescued.
The family was returning home from their farm. Due to incessant rains in the upstream over the last few days, water was flowing menacingly in the drain. “However, they couldn’t judge its turbulence and decided to cross it on the bullock cart,” said an officer of Bagasara police station.
The deceased were identified as Manisha Hasmukh Thavani (32), her nine-year-old daughter Khushi, five-year-old son Yash and sister-in-law Rekha (45).
Rekha’s husband Sharad, his father Nagji and son Ashwin survived as the knew swimming. The bodies of victims were fished out from Khijadiya village, 15km away from the place of incident.
One of the bullocks also died in the incident.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy rains at isolated places in Amreli, Bhavnagar, Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Navsari, Surat, Bharuch and Vadodara districts over the next five days.
The rainfall is being caused by the upper air cyclonic circulation lying over Gujarat region and neighbourhood over South Gujarat.
An IMD bulletin stated that thunderstorm and lightning accompanied with winds gusting up to 40kmph is very likely at many places districts of Gujarat region, Saurashtra and in Diu, Daman, Dadra Nagar Haveli and at isolated places in Kutch district during this period.