Pune: A group of 25 boys, 17 girls and 6 teachers had gone for a picnic at a beach in Maharashtra’s Raigad district on Thursday.
Eight of those students will never return home.
The picnic was organised by Winners Academy, a private coaching institute in Alandi, Pune district, where all 42 students were enrolled, PTI reported.
Some of the students ventured into the sea, but 8 of them were swept away after misjudging the depth of the water and the current, a police officer said.
Search and rescue teams rushed to the spot after receiving an alert and recovered the bodies.
“By the evening, even a missing student’s body was found. Local residents and rescue workers pulled all eight boys out and rushed them to the primary health centre at Borli for treatment, where they were declared dead,” the officer informed.
Further legal and administrative formalities are being completed before the bodies are handed over to the respective families, police said.
A fortnight ago, two teenagers died during a reel-making outing during the Ganeshotsav holiday in Maharashtra’s Palghar district. The boys had jumped into the waters of Vaitarna river as a friend filmed them on his mobile phone. In a similar mishap to the one on Thursday, they misjudged the depth of the water and drowned.