In 24 hours, 12 people die of drowning in Gujarat

At least 12 people drowned in separate incidents reported from Surat, Narmada and Bhavnagar districts in the 24 hours ending Monday evening.

In a coastal village Sendarda, 18 km from Mahuva in Bhavnagar district, four of a family died after drowning in a dam, on Monday. One of the victims was a 14-year-old boy Nikul.

When the boy started drowing while playing, three women including his mother Mangu Baraiya ventured into the water followed by her cousin sister Kajal and another woman Daksha Shiyal. The women had gone to wash clothes at the dam.

Some people washing clothes near by saw them drowing and informed the sarpanch.

Local swimmers fished out the four bodies. Bodies have been sent to Mahuva hospital for postmortem.

Five more people including a minor boy and his parents drowned in the backwaters of Karjan dam near Mandan village on Sunday.

The victims hailed from Bharuch district and had entered the water to get respite from the heat.

Rajpipla police station's inspector J K Patel said they, however, failed to assess the depth of the water body and drowned.

The deceased were identified as Janak Parmar (35), his wife Jigisha (32) and son Pruthviraj (8), as well as Virpal Chauhan (27) and his wife Khushi (24), the police said.

At Suvali beach off Surat city, three youngsters drowned while one was missing when they went for a swim in the Arabian sea on Sunday evening.

One of the five youths, from the Azadnagar area, who went to swim in the sea was rescued, while search was underway for another who has remained missing for over 24 hours after the incident, which took place, inspector JB Bubadiya of Hazira police station said.