Amaravati, May 27 (IANS) Bodies of three out of eight youngsters who were feared drowned in the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh’s Dr B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema district have been recovered, police said on Tuesday.

Personnel of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) continued the search for the remaining youth.

Bodies of Vaddi Rajesh (15), his brother Vaddi Mahesh (15) and Subbitha Paul Abhishek (18) were recovered in the morning.

A group of 11 youngsters drowned while taking a bath in the river near Kamini Lanka in Mummidivaram mandal on Monday.

While three youth managed to come out, the remaining were washed away.

The missing youths are Subbitha Kranti Kiran (19), Tatipudi Nitish (18), Elumarthi Sai (18), Rohith (18), and Elipe Mahesh (14)

Four of the youth were from Kakinada district, while four others belonged to Konaseema district. They were all students of Class 10 and Intermediate.

SDRF, police, revenue, and fisheries departments, with the help of local fishermen and expert swimmers, were carrying out the search operation.

Eight boats, including three boats of SDRF and six drones, have been deployed for the search, which is being supervised by Konaseema district Collector R. Mahesh Kumar and Superintendent of Police Krishna Rao.

The youth had come to attend a wedding in the family of a friend in Seri Lanka in K. Gangavaram mandal. After having their lunch, they went to the river to take a bath.

Locals said the youth had no knowledge of the depth of the water and apparently did not know how to swim.

Preliminary investigation by the police revealed that when two of the youth started drowning, three others tried to save them, and when they too were drowning, three others tried to rescue them, and in the process, all of them drowned.

The remaining three youth, who managed to reach the bank, raised an alarm and appealed to the locals for help.

Police rushed to the river with the help of locals and launched a search for the missing youth. Officials from revenue and other departments also rushed to the spot along with SDRF personnel.

The search operation continued till late in the evening and resumed early Tuesday morning.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu expressed shock over the incident. He spoke to the Konaseema district Collector over the phone. The Collector briefed him on the rescue effort.

The Chief Minister asked officials to make every effort to rescue the missing. He also directed them to provide information to their families regularly.

–IANS

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