CHENNAI: Two college students who came to attend a football tournament from Tiruvallur drowned at Puzhal lake while taking a bath to beat the summer heat on Sunday .
The deceased, Samraj, 20 and Vijayaraj, 22, were residents of NSK Street in Puzhal and students of a private college in Tiruvallur. They played a football match organised by a private company. After the match on Sunday evening, many of the spectators and players took a bath at the lake in Puzhal to beat the summer heat. The two friends joined in.
But Samraj and Vijayaraj who were known to be good swimmers suddenly disappeared while bathing. Soon, their friends started searching for the two in the water. The members of the public and other youths also joined the search.
Since the two could bot be traced, the fire and emergency services personnel were called in. They came and stopped the search as there were no lights. On Monday morning, the bodies of Samraj and Vijayaraj were found floating in the lake.
The police and fire officials who came to resume the search operation retrieved the bodies. The Puzhal police registered a case of drowning and sent the bodies to Tiruvallur Government Hospital for postmortem. Police said they could see a lot of youngsters turning up to take bath in the lake. “Many of them failed to gauge the depth of water and end up drowning. Even a good swimmer fails if he enters the deep part of the lake,” said an investigating officer.
