11 youths drown on Sunday picnics in Maharashtra

At least 11 youths picnicking on Sunday were drowned in two separate incidents in Maharashtra in Nagpur and Pune, police said on Monday.

The first tragedy took place at Mangrur Lake on the outskirts of Nagpur where 10 collegians were on an outing.

They unmoored a boat on the lakeside, rowed it to the centre of the lake and then halted it to click selfies on their mobiles.

At one point, almost all the occupants moved to one side of the boat and lost balance resulting in the boat capsizing in the deep waters.

Three students who could swim managed to reach the bank safely and by the time they could summon help, the others had already drowned.

Another tragedy struck a group of 10 students of JSPM Pharmacy College at the Pavna Dam in Lonavala where they had gone for a picnic on five motorcycles.

To beat the heat, one of the students entered the waters ignoring the powerful currents which dragged him into deep waters.

As he shouted for help, three others jumped in the water to save him, but even they could not overcome the currents and were swept away to a long distance.

Their bodies were recovered this morning by a team of police and National Disaster Response Force.

The bodies of the 11 male victims, aged between 18-24, in both the tragedies were handed over to their respective family members for the last rites on Monday morning.

The Ashirwad Nagar locality of Nagpur, from where the seven deceased hailed, observed a shutdown to mourn for them.

In Pune, the bodies of two youths from Pimpri-Chinchwad were handed over to their families, while the bodies of two others from Beed and Akola were taken in ambulances to their native towns.