Raipur: A weekend picnic turned tragic for a group of tourists from Madhya Pradesh when three of them drowned and as many others went missing while bathing in the Ramdaha waterfall in Chhattisgarh's Korea district on Sunday, officials said.
A group of 15 people, believed to be members of an extended family, from Singrauli district in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh had arrived for a picnic at the Ramdaha waterfall under the Kotadol police station limits, located more than 300 km away from the state capital Raipur, they said.
Korea collector Kuldip Sharma said officials received the information that seven people had gone missing while bathing in the plunge pool of the waterfall. "A team of district administration and police was rushed to the spot and a rescue operation was launched. Initially, two of the seven persons were traced by rescuers and were shifted to a nearby hospital," he said.
Of the two persons- a man and a woman- pulled out of the water, Ratnesh Singh (26) was declared dead at the hospital while Surekha Singh (22) is out of danger, a police official said. Later, the bodies of Himanshu Singh (18) and Rishabh Singh (24), the husband of Surekha, were also traced, he said, adding the search and rescue operation was underway to trace the three others, he added.
The missing persons are identified as Shweta Singh (22), Shraddha Singh (14) and Abhay Singh (22), he said. The rescue operation will not be carried out at night and resume on Monday morning, another police official said. Despite a caution board placed at the spot requesting people not to bathe in the waterfall, the tourists went into deep waters, he added. "More details of the incident and the rescue operation will be known later as there is no proper mobile network connectivity in the area," the official said. (Agency inputs)
