Rescue teams fish out bodies of six youths missing in Nellore boat mishap

TIRUPATI: Rescue teams on Monday fished out the bodies of the six persons missing after a country boat, carrying 10 people, capsized in a tank in Thoderu Shantinagar village of SPSR Nellore district on Sunday evening.

According to the information, ten persons between the ages of 16 and 30 were on board when the country boat made of iron overturned in the village tank after making a U-turn at about 5 pm. Six people drowned, while the four others swam to safety.

The four were Onteru Mahindra (20), Onteru Mahesh (19), Enugu Vishnu (18) and A Kiran (18). The deceased were P Balaji (20), Batta Raghu (25), Mannoor Kalyan (30), Challa Prashant Kumar (26), Pati Surendra (16) and Alli Srinath (16). All of them knew how to swim, but the swampy conditions in the tank caused the tragedy, police said.

The youngsters allegedly took away the boat without informing the pond's custodian. "The boat was being used to feed fish,” said Nellore SP Vijaya Rao. Agricultural minister Govardhan Reddy visited the spot.

Meanwhile, the grandmother of one of the deceased, Alli Srinath, died of a heart attack after learning of her kin’s death, at Buchireddypalem village.