Amaravati, March 20 (IANS) Five engineering students drowned in the Godavari River in Andhra Pradesh’s Polavaram district on Friday, police said.

The bodies of three students have been recovered while the search was on for two others. The tragedy occurred near Purshottapatnam in Etapaka mandal.

According to police, a group of seven students from SRM Engineering College, Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh, entered the river to take a bath.

The students, who apparently had no idea of the depth of the water, suddenly started drowning. Five of them were swept away while two managed to reach the riverbank.

Local residents, with the help of a boat, started searching for the missing youth. Police and other authorities also launched the search operation. The bodies of three youths were recovered. They have been identified as C. Srikar, P. Abhiram and Navdeep.

Srikar was from Bhadrachalam in Telangana, Abhiram hailed from Vizianagaram and Navdeep from Vuyyuru in Krishna district

The search was on for Goka Teja and Pasham Satish Kumar, hailing from Vuyyuru and Madanpalli, respectively.

The students were pursuing second-year B. Tech at SRM College in Amaravati. They were on a pleasure trip to the region during Ugadi holidays. After a visit to Bhadrachalam in Telangana, they came to Purushottapatnam

Two of them, Chanduri Deepak and Gaddam Harshvardhan, both from Andhra Pradesh, managed to reach the riverbank safely.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu expressed grief over the tragedy. He conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims.

According to an official release, he spoke to officials regarding the incident and gathered the details. Officials explained that seven students entered the Godavari River to take a bath, and five of them subsequently went missing.

They apprised the Chief Minister that three of the missing students died, while search operations were continuing to locate the remaining two students, Satish Kumar and Teja.

The Chief Minister directed the officials to intensify search operations for the two missing students.

Chief Minister Chandrababu conveyed his condolences to the families of the deceased. He assured the affected families that the government would stand by them during this difficult time.

–IANS

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