16 Holi revellers die in AP

• 5 students drowned in a tank in Nizamabad
• One youth died in a well at Kukatpally
• Other tragedies across the state

Hyderabad: Holi, the festival of colours, turned deadly for 16 revellers across the state on Wednesday. In Nizamabad district, five students lost their lives when they were drowned in an irrigation tank in Basant village of Sirikonda mandal while washing off colours after playing Holi. According to police, the students, who could not swim, went so deep into the pond that they could not come out. The police recovered the bodies and sent them to Armoor Government Hospital for post-mortem. All of them were from Sirikonda mandal and students of Class 9th, 10th and Intermediate.A They were identified as Badala Madhu (15), Mohammed Afrar (17), S K Kaushik (16), Sheikh Afrose (16) and Sheikh Imran. Afrose and Imran belonged to the same family. In Karimnagar district, two persons died when they went to take bath in an agriculture tank in Rajeev Nagar village ofA Sirisilla mandal after playing Holi. The dead were identified as K Amba Das and C Santosh.A In the Hyderabad City, a youth drowned in a well in IDL area in Kukatpally when he went to the well to take bath after celebrating Holi, the police said.

In two separate incidents, two young men died while they were freshening up themselves in SRSP Canal after the Holi revelry. Saikiran Reddy, a first year veterinary science student from Nalgonda went to take bath after playing Holi with his friends in Korutla in Karimnagar district and drowned in the canal. Another person Ajju drowned in the same canal in Metpally while taking bath after playing Holi. In Nalgonda district, a six-year-old boy drowned in a water tank near Koyalagudem in Choutuppal mandal. He too went to the water body after playing Holi.A In Visakhapatnam district, tragedy struck four families on Holi day when their children drowned in different places. In Laxmipuram village of Bhimili mandal, Seshu (11) and Surendra (7) went to bathe in a pond located on the outskirts. While swimming, they got trapped in the mud and drowned. Villagers retrieved the bodies and cremated them. Since they did not allow the police or the media to enter the village, no case has been registered. In another incident, B Srinivasa Rao (6) drowned in a pond at Upamaka village under Payakaraopet mandal on Wednesday morning. He, along with his parents, came for a holy dip in the pond after having a bath at Rajaiahpeta beach on the occasion of Holi. The family hails from Guntur and was on a visit to Venkanna Jatara which began on March 22. The family took away the body without informing the police. Even before the people could recover from the shock, a watermelon vendor, B Sattaiah of PayakaraopetA mandal met with a watery grave in the same pond in the evening. Nakkapalle Sub-Inspector K Shanmugha Rao said in both the cases, there was no police complaint. In a freak accident, a youth, playing Holi, was killed after a truck knocked him down in Adigoppala in Durgi mandal of Guntur district. (With inputs from district correspondents)