Patna: A 14-year-old boy is feared drowned after a country boat capsized in Dostia Bagmati river in Purnahiya police station area of Sheohar district late on Tuesday evening. The incident, however, came to light when the small boat and a bike were found abandoned near the river on Wednesday. A rescue operation was started by state disaster response force and police with the help of divers.
According to the police, four people were on the small boat, which capsized in the tributary of the Bagmati river. Three of them swam to safety, while Kartik Kumar, son of Kailash Shah, went missing.
Subdivisional magistrate Avinash Kunal, traffic DSP Bharat, the block development officer, CO and Purnahiya station house officer (SHO) Prem Jeet Singh monitored the rescue operation, which continued till Wednesday evening.
Singh said that the search operation was suspended due to poor visibility in the evening and will begin again from 7am on Thursday.
"The missing boy is a resident of Dostiya village. The capsized boat, which had a seating capacity of four to five people, was found by some local villagers at the ghat. Earlier it was thought that three persons were missing. But during the investigation, two of them were found at their homes. Only Kartik was found missing," said Purnahiya SHO Singh, adding they had gone to a agricultural field in the diara area to bring vegetables. The incident occurred while they were returning home in the evening, he said.