A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel fished out six bodies from Panchkhero Dam in Jharkhand on Monday, a day after a boat capsized in the 40-feet-deep reservoir, officials said.
Eight people, including seven children aged between six and 16 years, went missing after the boat turned turtle in the dam, located along the boundary of Giridih and Koderma districts, they said.
“Six bodies were recovered from the dam on Monday. Two children are yet to be traced. The remains of the boat were also found,” Koderma Deputy Commissioner Aditya Anand told PTI.
Two men and seven children, all residents of Kheto village in Rajdhanwar Police Station area of Giridih district, had hired a country boat for a sail. Ten people, including three girls, were on the boat when it capsized.
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The boatman and one of the visitors, however, succeeded in swimming ashore. NDRF team in-charge for the operation, inspector Saroj Kumar, told PTI, “Search will resume early morning on Tuesday.”
“There are several wells and brick walls under water, which are creating obstacles in the search operations. However, we have 14 trained staff members and two boats. We are confident of tracing the other two who are still missing,” Kumar said.
The Panchkhero dam, built on a land that was earlier occupied by residents, is used for medium irrigation purposes.
(With PTI inputs)
