In an unfortunate incident that took place on Sunday, November 17, three engineering students from Karnataka's Mysuru drowned in the swimming pool of a private beach resort near Ullal, within the Mangaluru police jurisdiction, reported The New Indian Express.
The victims were identified as N Keerthana, aged 21, daughter of S Naveen Kumar from Devaraj Mohalla in Vijayanagara; MD Nishitha, aged 21 as well, daughter of Mallesh from Kurubarahalli; and S Parvathi, 20, daughter of MN Srinivas from KR Mohalla.
Incident took place at a resort
According to the Ullal police, the incident occurred at Vazco Beach Resort in Peribail, near Batapady in Someshwar village, around 10.30 am on Sunday.
Mangaluru City Police Commissioner Anupam Agrawal, who visited the spot, told the media that the three friends entered the swimming pool around 10 am.
The incident happened when one of the women ventured into the deeper ends of the pool and drowned. The other girls drowned as well while trying to save each other, as per The New Indian Express report.
Sources reported that they had booked the resort online for the weekend and checked in on Saturday, November 16.
CCTV footage went viral
Meanwhile, the footage retrieved from the CCTV camera of the resort has gone viral. It shows the trio entering the pool and attempting to reach an inflatable ring that was placed in the deeper part of the pool.
One of the women ventures into the deeper area and cries out for help. The other two rush to assist her, but after a prolonged struggle to swim back to the shallow end, they drown as well.
Safety at resort found to be highly compromised
The police commissioner informed The New Indian Express that there were several instances of negligence found at the hotel regarding safety.
"Through CCTV footage we have come to know that the women had cried for help but no staff was around for their rescue nor any safety items were available at the pool. There was no lifeguard too and there was no mention of the depth of the pool. We have taken the resort owner Manohar into custody and are further investigating. The bodies have been shifted to district Wenlock hospital for post-mortem," he said.
The resort has now been shut down after the incident. Furthermore, the trade license and the tourism license of the Vazco resort have now been suspended.
