Gujarat: Five students drown in a lake in Amreli

Five friends, aged between 16 and 18 years, drowned in a lake in Lathi town of Amreli district after they had gone to bathe there. The bodies were found after a three-hour search operation carried out by fire brigade personnel and local swimmers.

According to the police, six students studying in Class 10 and 11 of Lathi had gone to the Naran Sarovar lake in Dudhala village to bathe. Of them, five friends including Vishal Mer (16), Naman Dabhi (16), Rahul Jadav (16), Meet Galathiya (17) and Haresh Mori (18) jumped into the waters to get relief from the sweltering heat. The sixth student who was standing by the side saw his friends drowning and informed the villagers.

"There was 20 feet deep pit inside the lake where the boys drowned," said Amreli deputy superintendent of police J P Bhandari.

The parents of the children soon informed the police and the fire brigade which immediately reached the lake even as about 12 local swimmers had already jumped into the waters to find the boys. After much search, bodies of all five boys were recovered three hours later. The bodies were sent for post mortem to a government hospital, said cops.