SDRF team conducts search and rescue operation in Gandak on Gopalganj-West Champaran border on Wednesday
PATNA/BAGAHA: A 36-year-old woman drowned while four people, including two children, were missing when their tractor-loaded boat capsized on Wednesday in the Gandak River near Bhagwanpur on the border of Gopalganj and West Champaran districts.
The body of Rajani Devi from Yadavpur in Gopalganj was recovered.
The incident took place around 10 a.m. when 14 workers, including four women and two children, boarded a boat to the western part of Bhagawandur Gandak diara to harvest sugar cane under the Nautan block in West Champaran.
Suddenly, someone started the tractor engine in the middle of the stream to hear a song from the stereo and the boat crashed into the river along with the trolley, sources said.
West Champaran DM Kundan Kumar told this newspaper that 14 people were on the boat. Eight of them swam to safety and four were missing. “The local divers have retrieved the bodies of Rajni and Renu Devi. Both were admitted to the Sadar hospital in Gopalganj where Rajni died during treatment. The SDRF team and the local divers are conducting the search and rescue operation. All 14 were from Gopalganj and Bettiah areas and engaged in agricultural activities,” he said.
Kumar reached the spot along with SP Bettiah Upendranath Verma, SDPO Bettiah Mukul Primal Pande, SDPO Gopalganj Sanjiv Kumar and SDO Upendra Pal. “The NDRF team has also been commissioned,” said Bhagawanpur panchayat mukhiya Kanaihiya Yadav.
Upendra told Bihar Engineering that one of the missing was tractor owner Indrajit Prasad from Khematihaniya under Vishambharpur Police Station.
“A 14-year-old girl, Punita Kumari, daughter of Nandlal Yadav from Bhawanpur, Saroj Kumari (12), daughter of Satya Narayan Yadav, and 60-year-old Uma Devi from Baraipati are also missing,” he said.
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