PONDA: A summer picnic of a Vasco family to the ‘deadly’ Kodar River ended in tragedy after two of its young members drowned in the river, at Khandepar near Opa, on Saturday. Efforts to retrieve the bodies were on till the time of filing this report.
According to police and fire officials, a seven-member family from Shantinagar in Vasco arrived at Khandepar near Opa for a picnic on Saturday morning. As the group was enjoying the picnic on the bank of Kodar River, two of its young members, Praveen Kumar Pal (20) and Rahul Suryavanshi (20) jumped into the river for a swim. And when the adventurous youth swam towards deep waters, they reportedly began drowning due to strong currents. Realising the situation, the youth reportedly shouted for help; however, before help could reach them, they got drowned and disappeared.
On being informed of the incident, a police team led by Ponda DySP Sunita Sawant and a team of fire and emergency personnel rushed to the spot and launched an intensive search operation to locate the drowned youth.
DySP Sawant and Ponda PI Sudesh Naik said that the place where the youth reportedly drowned is 15-metre deep and rocky.
Though the police and emergency teams have launched and intensive operation to locate the drowned youth, the missing duo could not be located till the time of filing this report.
According to sources, the dark green water of the river is making the search operation more difficult.
