Two drown, one missing as car gets swept away in Gujarat's Botad district

A child and an elderly man drowned and another person was missing after their car was swept away in an overflowing causeway near Godhawata village in Gujarat's Botad district, officials said Monday.

The incident took place at around midnight when the car was on way from Bochasan to Salangpur in the district, they said.

The car carrying seven passengers was passing through the overflowing causeway when it got away due to the strong water current, Barwala's Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Sanjay Chaudhari said.

After being alerted, police and local taluka level officials reached the spot.

Rescue operation was initially carried out by the local people and Botad fire team.

While four persons managed to swim to safety, bodies of two persons were recovered and sent for postmortem, the SDM said.

One person was missing, and a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) reached the spot to trace him, Chaudhari said.

The deceased have been identified as Krishnakant Pandya (60) and Prabuddha Kachhiya (9), he said.