11 drown in Bhopal lake after boat capsizes during Ganesh visarjan
The boat tilted to one side and then capsized while the massive idol was being dismounted for immersion in the lake.
Bhopal: In a tragic incident, at least 11 youths, all in the age group of 15-25, drowned in a lake here in the wee hours of Friday after the boat in which they were travelling capsized during the immersion of a Ganesha idol.
At least 19 people were travelling in the boat when the mishap occurred, police said. Six other revellers who were travelling in the ill-fated boat along with two boatmen swam to safety, Additional Director General of Police, State Disaster Rapid Force (SDRF) D. C. Sagar said.
“Eleven bodies have been recovered”, he added. This was the worst tragedy witnessed during annual immersion ceremony of Ganesh idol in Madhya Pradesh. In 2016, five youths drowned in the same lake on the same occasion.
Eyewitness accounts said a group of 17 youths, including a 15 year-old Muslim boy, hired a boat to immerse their 17 ft-long Ganesha idol in the lake, called in local parlance ‘Choti Jheel,’ at around 4.40 am.
The boat tilted to one side and then capsized while the massive idol was being dismounted for immersion in the lake.
“Some of us jumped off the boat when it turned upside down and swam to safety. But others who lacked swimming skills drowned. It was a heart-rending sight as the victims were shrieking for help before drowning,” Kamal Rana, 20, who also lost his brother Hari in the tragedy, told this newspaper.
PTI reported that 22 others drowned in other states during Ganesha visarjans, 18 of them in Maharashtra. Four devotees, two women and two men, drowned in the Yamuna river in Delhi.