Madurai: Five medical college students and interns from SRM Medical College Hospital and Trichy Government Medical College Hospital drowned in the sea off Lemur Beach in Kanyakumari on Monday due to a swell surge.
The deceased has been identified as P. Sarvadarshith (23) of Parakkai in Kanyakumari district, M. Praveen Sam (23) of Oddanchatram in Dindigul district, B. Gayathiri (25) of Neyveli, Venkatesh (24) of Andhra Pradesh and D. Charukavi (23) of Thanjavur.
The police said that a team of house surgeons had gone on a vacation to Nagercoil to attend a wedding. After the wedding ceremony, they went to Lemur Beach off the Arabian Sea, which falls under the Rajakkalmangalam police station limits in Kanyakumari district.
While seven of the house surgeons were standing near the shoreline, the others were sitting a little distance away from the sea which was rough. A giant wave swept those standing by the sea away, as the others raised an alarm and called for help.
The local fishermen rushed to their aid and managed to rescue S. Neshi, Preethi Priyanka and Saranya. They were rushed to Government Medical College Hospital in Asaripallam where Neshi’s condition is said to be critical. The dead bodies of the five medicos were recovered from the sea and were sent to Asaripallam Medical College Hospital for postmortem. With today’s incident, the death toll has risen to eight due to a swell surge in Kanyakumari district in the last three days.
Notably, the IMD has issued a ‘Red Alert’ warning on swell surges (sudden massive waves) called “kalla kadal” in the local dialect. The tourists were barred from taking bath in the sea at Tiruchendur beach and other beaches on Saturday and Sunday. Kanyakumari SP E Sundaravadanam visited Lemur Beach and stated that the district administration had earlier issued a warning on this but the youngsters ignored the warning.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin condoled the deaths of five medical college students and interns who drowned in the sea off Lemur Beach. The CM instructed the district administration to provide all assistance and the best medical care to the survivors.
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