4 students drown in Kuakhai river near Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, Jul 12 (PTI) Four students of a private management institute in Odisha drowned in Kuakhai river on the outskirts of the capital city, police said on Wednesday.

The incident took place on Tuesday when a group of eight students went for a bath in the river near Dhabalahar village under Balianta block on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.

While two bodies were retrieved on Tuesday, bodies of two other missing youths were found on Wednesday.

The deceased have been identified as Aryan Mishra of Jamshedpur, Kumar Avinash of Cuttack, Rohit Parida of Balasore and Prateek Dhalasamanta of Balikuda.

Police said the eight friends from a private management college in the city went to the river for a bath when four among them slipped into deep waters and got swept away by the strong currents.

Fire services personnel along with some scuba divers carried out a search operation on Tuesday. However, the operation was stopped at night and resumed on Wednesday morning.

“The youths had come take bath in the river around 2pm. Police received information about 5pm. Police and firefighters managed to retrieve the bodies of the missing students with the help of locals,” Balianta police station IIC Jubaraj Swain said.