Gorakhpur (UP), April 3 Four minors drowned in the Rapti River reportedly while attempting to record videos, prompting a search operation that lasted two days, officials said on Friday.
The incident occurred on Wednesday near the Mirzapur ghat in the Khorabar area of Gorakhpur, where a group of nine boys were on bicycles. All four bodies have been recovered by the rescue teams, they said.
According to police, five of them entered the river near a pontoon bridge to bathe and record videos. When they ventured into deeper waters and started drowning. One of the boys, identified as Rajkaran, managed to swim to safety and alerted others.
Teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were deployed, and a search operation was launched soon after the incident. Bicycles, clothes, and a mobile phone were recovered from the scene.
The body of one of the victims, Vivek Nishad (15), was recovered on Thursday evening, approximately 100 meters from the site. The remaining three, Aman alias 'Biru Rajbhar' (15), Gagan Paswan (15), and Aniket Yadav (13), were found floating in the river on Friday morning and were retrieved with the help of divers, officials said.
All the bodies have been sent for post-mortem examination.