Twenty-four Indian students and one professor are feared drowned in a river after a dam released water apparently without warning in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, India.
The engineering students, were part of a college trip from southern India. The students were from VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology; a college located in the city of Hyderabad in southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. According to the transport minister G.S. Balli, the students stopped to take photographs on the edge of the Beas river in Himachal Pradesh when water was released from a dam, reports the Agence France-Presse. They all were washed away.
Rescuers recovered 5 bodies and search for the rest is on. Officials said that the chances of survival of those washed away in the Beas river are dim.
"There was no warning," said D. Naidu, principal of the college. "They were trying to take photos on the banks when they were washed away," he told Reuters.
However, according to an engineer with the dam's power plant, officials had issued a warning before the water was released. He said that the local residents "definitely warned the students to come out of the river" several times.
"We saw a wall of water hit those who were on the banks. They fell flat and disappeared under the waves. The police reached very late and carried nothing to start a rescue operation," Sumiran, one of the surviving students, told The Indian Express newspaper.
Rescue workers using torches tried to search the students. "Rescue teams are looking downstream for the missing in the dark," he said.
The search operation continued Monday when emergency crews with divers and rafters tried to find the remaining students, police spokesman Kuldeep Singh Rana, told CNN. He added that the steep, rugged terrain of the valley made the search challenging.
A probe has been launched in the matter. Virbhadra Singh, the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, blamed the accident on the construction of the dam, according to TIME. He ordered the suspension of the engineer in charge until further investigation.
Angry residents staged protests against negligence by the local officials and blocked a nearby highway.
