Five persons, including a 10-year-old child, belonging to two families from Bengaluru drowned in the Visvesvaraya canal at Doddakottagere village near Basaralu in Mandya taluk on Tuesday (April 25).
The tragedy struck when the five members, who had come to their relative’s place for a holiday at Hellegere from Neelasandra in Bengaluru, went to the canal for a swim.
Reports reaching here said Tasmiya, 22, Afika, 22, Ashraf, 28, Anisha Begum, 34, and Mehtaab, 10, went to the canal located close to their village.
On seeing Mehtaab drowning, others went to the child’s rescue, but they too got caught in the swirling waters and drowned, according to the police.
Fire Services personnel retrieved three bodies from the canal. The search for the other two bodies was under way with the help of locals and fishermen till evening. The team will resume the search on Wednesday.
The post-mortem was done in Mandya hospital.
A large number of people gathered at the spot on learning about the incident. Basaralu police have registered a case.
