Mandi, Himachal Pradesh:
Rescuers today recovered the bodies of two more students of a Hyderabad-based engineering college who, along with their 22 other friends and a co-tour operator, were swept away in the Beas river on June 8, taking the number of bodies traced so far to 19.
The victims were identified as P Ridhima and Merudu Jagdish and their bodies were sent to their hometowns after post-mortem, Mandi Deputy Commissioner Devesh Kumar said.
Twenty-four BTech students of VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad and a co-tour leader had drowned in the Beas river on June 8 when the Larji hydropower project authorities suddenly released water from the dam.
The bodies of five students, including two girls, and co-tour leader Prahlad are yet to be recovered.
Rescue teams of NDRF, Police, ITBP and expert divers are searching for the remaining bodies in a 20-km stretch from Thalot to Pandoh Dam and efforts are being made to recover all the bodies, officials said.