Gorakhpur,

3 April (HS): Four adolescents drowned in the Rapti River while purportedly

attempting to shoot recordings, sparking a two-day search effort, authorities

said Friday. The event

occurred on Wednesday at Mirzapur ghat in Gorakhpur's Khorabar district, where

a group of nine lads had gone cycling. Rescue personnel reported they had

retrieved all four bodies. According to authorities, five of them went into the

river near a pontoon bridge to bathe and make recordings. When they got into

deeper water and started drowning. One of the lads, Rajkaran, swam to safety

and notified the others. Teams from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF)

and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were mobilized, and a search

operation began shortly after the tragedy.

Bicycles,

clothing, and a mobile phone were retrieved from the scene. One of the victims,

Vivek Nishad (15), was found dead on Thursday evening, just 100 metres from the

scene. The remaining three, Aman alias 'Biru Rajbhar' (15), Gagan Paswan (15),

and Aniket Yadav (13) were discovered floating in the river on Friday morning

and rescued with the assistance of divers, officials said. All of the bodies

have been sent for postmortem assessment.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi