Boy, man from Coimbatore drown in Kerala's Kallada river

PATHANAMTHITTA: A 12-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man from Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore drowned in the Kallada river near Enath here on Friday.

According to the Kerala Fire and Rescue Service, the incident occurred around 12:30 PM when a group of 13 people from Coimbatore on their way to Beemapally in Thiruvananthapuram went for a swim in the river near the Bailey Bridge.

The deceased have been identified as Muhammed Swolin,12, and Ajmal, 20.

Local residents had warned the group about the deep waters, but they chose to ignore it and entered the river in a different area near Mandapam Kadavu bathing ghat, fire and rescue officers said.

A team from the Adoor fire station was pressed into service soon after receiving a call at 12:45 PM.

They later recovered the bodies from near Kolassery bathing ghat.

Despite the strong current, the bodies were located after a search that extended about half a kilometer, fire and rescue officers said.

Fire and Rescue officers acted swiftly to bring both bodies to shore within 15 minutes, they said.

Although a scuba team was on its way from Pathanamthitta, the Adoor Fire Force managed to retrieve the bodies before they arrived, they added.

The parents of the deceased were also in the group which entered the river.

The bodies will be handed over to the relatives after conducting a post-mortem, the officers said.