Guwahati: 5 Swept Away by the Brahmaputra River in Kharghuli Area

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: Personnel from the NDRF and SDRF launched rescue operations to locate five persons swept away by strong currents of the Brahmaputra river in the Kharghuli area of the city on Wednesday afternoon. The operations continued until late in the evening.

The five persons had gone as part of a group to visit Bhakti Kutir, the Krishna Temple in the Kharghuli area. The group, aged between 40 and 45 years, were mainly from Assam and comprised a person from Gurgaon as well as an American national.

The incident occurred when a nine-person group from the party went for a dip in the waters of the Brahmaputra. Three of them are good swimmers, and they swam over to a sandbank. After reaching there, they warned the others not to venture out too far in the water, as the current was quite strong. However, the others did not heed the warning and entered the water.

Moments after they went into the water, six of them were pulled away by the strong water current. However, one of them managed to get back ashore, while five were carried away by the treacherous waters of the Brahmaputra.

NDRF sources said four of the nine-person group are safe, although one had to be hospitalised. Most of the people in the group are from Assam. The American, only identified as Jacob, is safe, the sources confirmed.

The five missing persons have been identified as Sagar Gautam, Upesh Kumar, Pratap, Abhijit and Raunak.

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