24 students feared drowned in India

6/8/2014
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW DELHI— Police say 24 students are feared drowned after they were swept away by the surging waters of a river near a mountainous tourist resort in northern India.

Police officer Dina Nath said a sudden discharge of water into the Beas river on Sunday from a dam upstream caught the students by surprise while they were clicking pictures on its bank near Manali, 330 miles (530 kilometers) north of New Delhi.

The 18 male and six female engineering students had come to the tourist town in Himachal Pradesh state from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

Nath said a massive rescue operation by security forces was hampered by nightfall and would be resumed on Monday morning.