Scorpio Plunges into Nagarjuna Sagar, Six Dead

Six persons died when the Scorpio in which they were travelling fell into the left canal of the Nagarjuna Sagar irrigation project near Chakirala of Nadigudem mandal in Suryapet district last night.

The bodies were extracted from the vehicle that was pulled out from the canal this afternoon by the NDRF team after nearly eight hours of struggle.

The incident occurred as the speeding SUV reportedly rammed into the railing of the Hyderabad-Vijayawada National Highway and plunged into the canal around 11 pm on Friday.

The six men were returning from the wedding in Nadigudem of their colleague. They are all staff of a private hospital in Hyderabad.

Guests from the wedding were returning in two vehicles, one with five members and another with six. One of the vehicles fell into the canal.

The dead were identified as Abdul Aziz (45), Rajesh (29), Johnson (33), Santosh Kumar (23), Nagesh (35) and Pavan Kumar (23).

According to an eyewitness, a colleague of the drowned men who was travelling in the other vehicle, the SUV floated along for a while after falling into the canal, and then sank and disappeared.

The Munagala police said that they were unable to locate the drowned 4-wheeler or the passengers since the canal was in heavy flow. State disaster management forces were roped in for rescue operations along with the local police. District Collector Ameya Kumar and District SP R Bhaskaran were overseeing the rescue operations. Local MLA Bollem Mallaiah Yadav also rushed to the spot on being informed about the accident.

The NDRF personnel were able to pull out the vehicle only this afternoon, and found the six bodies in it. The bodies were shifted to Kodad Hospital for post-mortems.