Five people, including four children, drowned after a boat capsised in the Yamuna river in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur district, while an 11-year-old boy remains missing, police said on Thursday.
The incident occurred on Wednesday evening in Kutubpur Patiya hamlet under Bhauli gram panchayat in the Kurara police station area. Nine passengers, excluding the boatman, were returning from a river island when the accident took place.
According to police, the boat lost balance midstream and capsised around 7 pm. The boatman, identified as Dheeru, managed to rescue three passengers, Vishnu, Rinku and Parul.
The remaining six, five children and a woman, Akanksha (9), Rani (9), Brijrani (25), Labhyansh (5), Mahesh (6) and Aditya (11), went missing following the incident.
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Rescue teams later recovered the bodies of Akanksha, Labhyansh, Mahesh, Rani and Brijrani on Thursday. Efforts are under way to trace Aditya, who remains unaccounted for.
Station House Officer Brijesh Kumar said continuous rainfall since morning has hampered the search operations.
District Magistrate Abhishek Goyal said teams of the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force have been deployed to carry out the rescue and search efforts.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken cognisance of the incident and directed the district administration to investigate its cause and ensure measures to prevent such mishaps in the future.
He also instructed senior officials to personally oversee the search operations and extend all possible assistance to the affected families.
BJP MLA from Hamirpur Manoj Prajapati said compensation would be provided to the bereaved families in accordance with existing norms and that a report on the incident would be submitted to the chief minister.
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