Picnic turns tragic as boy drowns, three missing in the sea off Srikakulam

Srikakulam: A joy trip to Kalingapatnam beach turned tragic for a group of six intermediate students after one of them drowned and three went missing in the Bay of Bengal on Sunday evening. The police said the boys had been warned by the local fishermen to be cautious with high tides.

The deceased youngster has been identified as 17-year-old A Sudhir Kumar, while his friends S Pravin Kumar Reddy, K Sanjay Kumar, and Y Panda, all natives of Srikakulam district, are missing.

The police said the six second-year students of Sri Chaitanya Junior College, Srikakulam, went to the beach under Gara Mandal for a splash. Five of them ventured into the waters. With their eyes beaming, the smiling teens got themselves clicked, in perhaps their last group photo.

The police said the youngsters were caught in a strong current and swept deep into the waters. None of them knew how to swim, they said. The Picnic turns tragic as boy drowns.

While the locals rushed in to save the boys, they could rescue only one youngster, Sk Abdullah. Later, the Srikakulam police with the support of the Marine Police and fishermen fished out the body of Sudhir Kumar. However, the other three remained untraced. The Picnic turns tragic for these boys.

Sources said that the six youngsters were out on a picnic on the account of Karthika, considered an auspicious month for Hindus.