Bodies of five kids fished out of river day after boat tragedy

KORAPUT: A day after eight persons, including six children went missing, when the two boats in which they were travelling capsized in the Sileru river under Chitrakonda police limits in Malkangiri district, the bodies of five children and one adult was fished out by the rescue team comprising of fire personnel, police and ODRAF till Tuesday evening.
“Rescue operation is underway to trace out the other missing persons. On Monday night, three persons travelling in the boat had swam to Kandhaguda ferry point,” said SP (Malkangiri) Hrishikesh Khilari.
Police sources said the accident took place around 10 pm on Monday while 11 people, including minors, of Guthabeda and Kandhaguda villages were returning home.
The villagers had gone to Sileru in Telangana to work at a brick kiln. But due to the lockdown they were returning home in two country boats on Monday night, said police. Police also said the villagers choose to hire two fishing boats to go to their village from Sileru because they feared being quarantined on reaching home if they travelled by road.
One of the boats with six persons capsized after it reportedly collided with a stump in the river forcing the passengers to swim to the other boat to save their lives. The second boat also capsized under the load. But, three persons managed to swim to the ferry point at Kandhaguda and inform local villagers.
Owing to darkness and remoteness of the area, the rescue operations couldn’t be carried out at night, said T Padmanav Dora, tehsildar, Chitrokonda. On Tuesday morning, fire personnel, police and an ODRAF team launched a search operation and fished out the bodies.