Lonavala waterfall tragedy: All five bodies found; search op called off
The bodies of all five people swept away in a waterfall near Bhushi Dam in Pune's Lonavala area were found on Monday with that of the last missing person, a 4-year-old boy, being fished out in the evening, an official said.
Pune: The bodies of all five people swept away in a waterfall near Bhushi Dam in Pune’s Lonavala area were found on Monday with that of the last missing person, a 4-year-old boy, being fished out in the evening, an official said.
The five, comprising a woman and four children, drowned at around 12:30pm on Sunday and bodies of three of them were recovered some hours later, while that of a girl was fished out earlier on Monday morning, he said.
“The body of Adnan Ansari was recovered this evening, after which the search operation was called off,” said Suhas Jagtap, senior inspector of Lonavala police station.
The bodies of Shahista Liaqat Ansari (36), Amina Adil Ansari (13) and Umera Adil Ansari (8) were found by rescuers some hours after search-and-rescue operations started at the site on Sunday afternoon.
Police, Navy divers and other rescue teams resumed the search for the two missing children on Monday and recovered the body of Mariya Ansari (9) from a reservoir near the accident spot.
A video of the incident showed some 9-10 persons holding on to each other while water gushed downhill all around them, before a woman and a boy and then a girl get swept away as their grip loosened.
In the video, bystanders can be heard providing encouragement and urging them to hold on tight till help arrived.
Police said the deceased were part of a group of 16-17 persons, all related to each other, from Sayyad Nagar in Hadapsar in Pune who had come there for a one-day picnic.
They were caught unawares when the water level at the site rose due to intense rain and soon were stranded, the official said.
A relative said family members had travelled from Mumbai for a wedding a couple of days ago and had hired a bus to Lonavala for a picnic.
Bhushi Dam is among the most patronised sites in the Pune region by tourists once monsoon starts, police said, adding that warnings of not venturing into the water are often ignored by revellers.
A police official said some 50,000 people visited Lonavala on Sunday amid rains.
