Two Stewart Science College students drown in Damadamani Dam

CUTTACK: In a tragic incident, two students of city-based Stewart Science College drowned in Damadamani dam within Choudwar police limits here on Wednesday.

Srutik Satapathy (19) and Soyam Sanket Das (18) were plus two science students of the second year. Both were residents of Cuttack city.

The incident occurred when the duo along with three classmates visited Damadamani temple at Mangarajpur. Later, they went to the dam for a bath at around 2 pm. While three of them entered the water, the rest two stood on the banks.

However, the three slipped into a deep pocket of the reservoir. Upon seeing them, locals rushed to the spot and rescued one of them. Srutik and Soyam, however, went missing.

A team of fire personnel rushed to the spot and launched a search operation with the help of scuba divers. “After searching for about five minutes, the scuba divers found the bodies and sent them to SCB medical college and hospital,” said station officer of Choudwar fire station, Bishnu Prasad Das.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi expressed his condolences for the family members. He also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each for the two families from state disaster assistance fund.