Four, including engg students, drown in sea off Mamallapuram

Chennai: At least four teenagers including two engineering students died in two separate incidents of drowning in the sea of Mamallapuram since Sunday.

On Sunday, a group outing with their batchmates turned fatal for two first year engineering students. Two other students were saved by local fishermen there, police sources said.

The deceased students were identified as Kalyan (18) and Upendra (18) -  both hailing from Andhra Pradesh.

According to the police, a group of 12 students of a private engineering college in Kelambakkam had gone to Mamallapuram on Sunday. The students were warned by the locals about the dangers of swimming in the area, but they didn’t pay heed to the warnings.

Around 11 am, as the students were playing in the sea when a giant wave engulfed four of the group. The other students raised alarms after which local fishermen went inside the sea in their catamarans and managed to rescue two of them.

However, two students couldn’t be found. Meanwhile, police along with rescue personnel rushed to the scene and began searches.

While Kalyan’s body washed ashore late on Sunday night, Upendra’s body washed ashore on Monday morning, police said. Mamallapuram police secured their bodies and moved it to Government Chengelpet Hospital. Parents of the deceased students and the college management were informed, police said.

On Monday, two teenagers, Vijay (19) and his friend Karthik (18) drowned near the same spot, police said The duo had come with two of their friends for a dip in the sea and got engulfed into the water. While two of them were saved, Vijay’s body washed ashore later in the evening. Search is on for the other teenager, Karthik’s body, whom police suspect to have drowned. Vijay is a polytechnic student and is a resident of Sriperu-mbudur while Karthik, a resident of Chitlapakkam works at a mobile accessories store in T Nagar.