DHAKA: The bodies of two of the 24 students, who were washed away in the Beas river near Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, have been recovered from the Pandoh dam reservoir.

The incident occurred at around 6 pm on Sunday when the students, six of them girls, were clicking pictures on the banks of the river. They were on their way from Shimla to the resort town of Manali for an excursion. A sudden release from the reservoir of the Larji dam led to a surge in the water level in the river which is feared to have swept away the students. One bus conductor is also reportedly missing.

Ravi Kumar, a college student who was part of the group and an eyewitness to the incident, said, "I tried calling out to my friends, but my voice got stuck. They also saw the water level rising, I tried helping few of them, but in a span of six seconds, the water level rose to five or six feet...in front of my eyes, they got drowned."

The missing students were part of a 46-member sightseeing group from the VNR Vignan Jyothi Engineering College.

Angry locals protested, saying authorities had failed to issue a warning about the release of water from the dam. However, the additional district magistrate has claimed that a siren went off before the dam water was released but the students may not have been able to understand what it was for.

Source: ndtv.com

BDST: 1035 HRS, JUN 09, 2014