Three youths drown in Brahmani

ROURKELA: Three youths met their watery grave in the Brahmani river at Panposh area under R N Pali limits on Thursday. The incident occurred while they were bathing at the shallow end of the river.As per reports, four youths had gone to the river for a dip around 10.15 am and the mishap occurred near the Harapoka Ghat adjacent to Panposh bridge. While Akash Sahu (19), Jitu Mohapatra (21) and Subhendu Naik (22) drowned, the fourth boy, identified as Siddharth, managed to swim to safety. Even as fire brigade personnel failed to locate the bodies after two hours of search, a seven-year-old child, Shayama Kharia, accompanied by some local youths saw the bodies floating and retrieved them. The bodies were kept at Rourkela Government Hospital for postmortem.A pall of gloom descended over Chhend Colony here from where the youths hailed. A case has been registered at the RN Pali police station.