20 people separated from families in Marina crowd reunited by police

CHENNAI: Due to the thronging crowd at Marina beach on New Year's Day, as many as 17 children and three elderly people got separated from their families. Police teams on the ground ensured that the separated children got reunited with their families.

City Police had set up two temporary control rooms near Marina beach on Sunday- one near Labour statue and one near Anna Square police station to co-ordinate with the personnel on ground. Apart from this, temporary watchtowers were also erected on the beach

All-terrain vehicles of City Police too were on rounds on the beach to ensure that there were no untoward incidents.

"There was more crowd at the beach during the day and we also used drones to monitor the crowd which helped in quickly finding the lost children, " a police officer said.

Police also used PA (public address) systems to warn the public to be careful about robbers who use the crowd to rob valuables.