PANDOH (TIP): The rescue team fished out two more bodies of students of the Hyderabadbased VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology from the Beas river at Pandoh on June 12. According to certain media reports, the bodies were recovered by the joint rescue team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), Indian Tibet Border Police (ITBP), police and local divers.

With this, the total number of bodies recovered so far has reached eight. However, there was no trace till Thursday evening of the remaining 16 students who were washed away in flash flood in the Beas river, caused due to the sudden release of water from Largee Dam on Sunday evening. The bodies recovered on June 12 have been identified as T Upendra, son of Tallada Srinivas of Khammam district of Telangana, and Gonoor Arvind Kumar, son of G Vinod Kumar of Vanasthali Puram of Hyderabad.

Gonoor’s maternal uncle Shridhar identified the dead body of his nephew. The rescue team recovered Upendra’s body from 500 meter ahead of the incident site at Thalout and Gonoor’s body was recovered from Rainsnala area, nearly 1 kilometer away from the site. Police later sent the two bodies for post mortem at the zonal hospital in Mandi. The incident occurred at around 6 pm on June 8 when the students, six of them girls, were clicking pictures on the banks of the river. They were on their way from Shimla to the resort town of Manali for an excursion. A sudden release from the reservoir of the Larji dam led to a surge in the water level in the river which is feared to have swept away the students.