Tragic drowning incident: Two Class X students lose lives

Rourkela: Bodies of two Class X students, who drowned in a stream at Ghagari in Sundargarh district's Birkera village on Friday afternoon, were recovered by fire brigade personnel after a hour-long search operation.

The deceased have been identified as Omm Suna and Anurag Das, both 16.Police said Omm, Anurag, Abhijit Hobo, Sumit Seth, Abhishek Sahu and Pritam Hasda, all Class X students of an English medium school in Rourkela, left for school on Friday morning. But on the way, they changed their uniforms at a fitness centre and thereafter searched online for a good outing spot. They zeroed in upon the stream at Ghagari under Kalunga police outpost and reached there in two motorcycles around 12 noon.

Omm and Anurag entered the water to bathe, while the other four stood outside. Omm and Anurag drowned in the water body. After they failed to come up, the rest four went to the nearby village and informed locals. The local sarpanch informed Kalunga police outpost, from where personnel reached the spot and called the Panposh fire station. Fire brigade personnel reached the spot and launched a search operation.Family members of the two missing boys were called to the spot. After searching for about one hour, the bodies of Omm and Anurag were fished out. Kalunga police sent the bodies to the morgue at Rourkela Govt Hospital. The post-mortem will be done on Saturday.