After 5 days, 20 kg magnet spots car with 5 bodies in riverbed

Five days after the vehicle carrying five persons plunged into a river in Assam's Sivasagar district, rescuers found it Wednesday with the help of a 20 kg magnet, officials said here.

Decomposed bodies of five members of a family were also found inside the four wheeler which was recovered around 300 metre away from the accident site at Dinchial village.

The five have been missing after their vehicle plunged into the Dikhow river after breaking a dyke Saturday evening. Divers of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Army and Navy have been searching for the vehicle.

The 20 kg magnet brought from neighbouring Dibrugarh district got stuck to the bumper of the car and SDRF diver Pranjal Doley found a tyre near it, SDRF search team leader Jiten Doley told reporters.

"He then tied a rope to it and came up to inform the team members that the car has been found," the SDRF leader said.

It took around two hours to lift the vehicle from the bed of the river to its bank and five decomposed bodies were found inside it, he said.

The victims were identified as Guwahati based businessman Haren Bora (52), his wife Phunu Bora (45), daughters Simpi Bora (22) and Munmi Bora (18), and mother Ponou Bora (86).

The family was traveling from Sivasagar to Guwahati.

An eight-member team of Indian Navy deep divers were flown in from Vizag to assist the rescue operation being carried out by first response SDRF followed by NDRF and a 10-member team of Army para-commando divers, district administration sources said.