Beas tragedy: One more body found

Shimla: The seventh dead body of a victim of Beas River mishap was found early on Thursday. The dead body was retrieved from the river on Thursday at 9.05 a.m. The dead body has not been identified so far.

It is worth recollecting that tragedy struck 24 engineering students from Hyderabad when they were off to an excursion in Manali. A tourist visit became a dead trap for the young students from Hyderabad on Sunday.

At least 24 students from an engineering college in Hyderabad drowned in the Beas River near Thalot village, Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh.

It was learnt that the incident followed a large quantity of water released from large reservoir on Sunday. The students from the VNR Engineering College were on a trip to Himachal Pradesh for an excursion. It is learnt that hundreds of cusecs of water was discharged from Large Hydro Power Project's reservoir in the evening around 7pm on Sunday when the students were clicking pictures on the banks of the river at Thalot.

According to the police inputs from the site of tragedy, there were 6 girls and 18 boys who were heading towards Mandi from Manali on a bus when they decided to get down and walk to the river bank to take pictures with the Beas in the background.

A rescue team was launched with professional divers who tried their best to save the youngsters' life. Though the efforts of the police and people from nearby villages were put in to rescue the students, the search went in vain due to lack of light.

Govermment of himachal pradesh has provided a toll free no. 1800-180-8024 for the use of all people to know the status of the rescue operatons. pl publicise this number for public accessibility.