Two students drowned in a river in Chittur, Palakkad, on Saturday while bathing with friends. The deceased are Sree Gautham (21), a native of Nayveli, and Arun Kumar (21) from Ramanathapuram, Coimbatore.

Arun and Gautham were part of a six-member group from a college in Karappakam who had come to the spot to spend their day off. While swimming, they were caught in strong currents around 2 pm. Residents and fire and rescue personnel managed to pull Gautham out and rush him to a nearby hospital, but he could not be saved. Meanwhile, Arun’s body was recovered near the causeway around 5.20 pm after an extensive search.

“We received a call around 2 pm that two youths went missing near the causeway in the Velayadi river. We immediately dispatched a scuba team and a rescue vehicle to the spot,” said an official from the Chittur Fire Station.

Video footage shows Gautham swimming backstroke in shallow waters before suddenly being sucked in. “He was underwater for 25 minutes before we rescued him using towels,” said a resident. Police said the bridge, functioning as a check dam, has several shutters allowing water to flow through. The two students must have got caught in the strong current near one of the open shutters and drowned, he said.