Two young rowers in Kolkata die after their boat capsized during Norwester

KOLKATA: Two class IX students of South Point school who were rowing at Rabindra Sarobar lake died when their boat side turned after being caught in the Norwester on Saturday afternoon.
Police said, Pushan Sadhukhan (14) and Souradeep Chatterjee (14) – trainees at Lake Club were rowing with three other teenagers when their boat was caught in the squall around 4.40pm and it capsized plunging the youths in the water. While three of them managed to swim ashore, Sadhukhan and Chatterjee drowned.
A large team of the disaster management group of Kolkata Police scanned the water for several hours before they managed to drag Sadhukhan out of the water around 7.40pm and Chatterjee was found 20 minutes later in the same area. Both of them were taken to SSKM hospital where they were declared dead on arrival.
“When the rowers started their training around 3pm the weather was fine but while they were coming back to the shore, the squall started and atleast 6-7 boats capsized at the same time. While some swam ashore by themselves, others were saved on rescue boats. When we brought all of them to the club, we realised two of them were missing and we instantly resumed a search operation. Cops joined us soon but it was only after three hours that we could spot them," said Lake Club’s joint secretary Debu Datta.
While Sadhukhan was a resident of Santoshpur, Chatterjee lived at Raja Basanta Roy Road in south Kolkata. Datta added both of them were trained swimmers and were training Rowing at the club for the past one and half years. “They were trained swimmers. I have been involved with the club for 52 years and this is the first time something like this has happened in our club,” said Datta.
Sources said the two were training for an inter school competition.