Srinagar: Six persons, including a 35-year-old woman, her two school-going twins and two other children, died when a boat overturned in the Jhelum River, five kilometres from the city centre of Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Tuesday.
The National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, Indian Army, police, and locals managed to rescue six passengers. Search for the remaining three is on.
According to sources, the incident occurred at 8 am. The old wooden boat was heading from Gandbal, on one side of the Jhelum towards Batwara, the other bank. The boat, tied with a rope to a cable for support crashed and capsized when it hit an iron pillar due to heavy flow in the river caused due to incessant rain since Saturday.
“Fifteen persons were in the boat when it capsized. While six people were rescued, six bodies were retrieved till the afternoon. A search is on for three missing persons,” Srinagar Deputy Commissioner Bilal Bhat told mediapersons.
The rescued persons were rushed to Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital where three were admitted and the rest were discharged after first-aid.
