Four youths missing in Godavari at Gopulanka

RAJAMAHENDRAVARAM: Seven friends from the Sajjapuram Park Street area of Tanuku town in West Godavari district left Yanam on Saturday for a vacation. They all reached Yanam on three motorcycles and spent some time there. From there in the afternoon they reached Gopilanka Pushkarghat in Tallarevu Mandal. After the meal there, while they were all sitting on the bank of the Godavari, they said that one of them jumped into the Godavari to take a bath, but as the depth was too deep, he drowned.

Seeing this, three friends jumped into the river to save him. But all four got lost in the stream. The missing persons have been identified as Hanumakonda Karthik (21), Maddini Phanindra Ganesh (21), Pendyala Balaji (21), and Tirumalarao Ravi Teja (21). Nedunuri Bhanuprasad among the rest of the friends got scared and ran away from there. Saladi Durga Mahesh and Kommireddy Chaitanya searched for friends in Godavari with the help of locals but to no avail.

With this, they called their family members and told them about the loss of their friends. The information reached the disaster management officials and through them, the information was received by the District Collector of Konaseema. He called Tallarevu Tahsildar and gave appropriate instructions. A search for the missing was unsuccessful. At midnight, Koringa SI Ravikumar told Hans India that search operations were still going on for the missing.