Two students drown in sea off Chennai, three rescued

A 17-year-old Class 11 student is feared to have drowned in the sea off Marina beach while three of his friends were rescued on Friday afternoon.

The incident happened near Ovaiyyar statue at Marina beach at around 12.30 pm when seven school friends from Pallavaram were taking a dip in the sea off the Marina sands.

Four of them got sucked away in the sea while three of them were rescued and taken to hospital by the ambulance service.

However, one boy named Akbar, 17 remained untraceable till evening, police said. The rescued three — Purushottaman, Yuvaraj, and Jhon Regan — are undergoing treatment in Government Royapettah Hospital, police said.

In another incident, a BCom student drowned in the sea after a huge tide sucked him away while he was playing in the sea at Elliot’s Beach in Besant Nagar on Thursday.

The deceased was identified as Sushanth, 20, a resident of Ayanavaram and a student at a college in Tambaram. On Thursday, he had visited the beach with relatives and was sucked away in a giant wave.

His body was later washed ashore on the same beach in the night, police said.