Beas river tragedy: More personnel to join search

MANDI: The search operation to trace the 17 persons still missing following the tragedy in the Beas river involving a group of engineering students from Hyderabad resumed on its fifth day today with more personnel set to join the efforts.

"Fifteen more divers from Hyderabad will join the operation later in the day," said Telangana Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy, who has been camping here following the mishap on Sunday evening.

About 60 students and faculty members of the VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology of Hyderabad were on an excursion to Manali when 25 members of the group were swept away in the river following the sudden release of water from the reservoir of the Larji hydropower project near Thalot.

The bodies of T Upender of Khammam district and G Arvind Kumar of Hyderabad were recovered yesterday, taking to eight the number of bodies recovered so far.

More than 550 rescue workers from various agencies are searching for the missing persons with the search parties focusing their efforts on the 20-km stretch from Thalot to Pandoh river.