Disaster mgmt saves 3 children from drowning

Kolkata: Officers of the Disaster Management Group (DMG) of Kolkata Police saved three children from drowning in river Hooghly on Friday. The children were swept away due to the strong current in the river when they were trying to catch floating wooden structures of immersed idols.

A police officer said they received information at around 2 pm that three children were carried away in the current at Bichali Ghat which is under the jurisdiction of Garden Reach police station.

Within a few minutes, officers of the Kolkata Police's DMG and River Traffic wing started taking measures to find out the children.

They continued search for the children and the officers were sent to all the nearby ghats. After two-and-a-half hours, police received information that someone saw three children floating on a piece of wood. Some people from Kashi Mitra Ghat saw the children floating in almost middle of the river. The people, who saw the children floating, told the police that all three of them were desperately trying to reach to the bank of the river. But it was not possible for them due to the strong current.

Policemen from North Port police station and DMG personnel had also spotted the children from Kashi Mitra Ghat and left no stone unturned to rescue the them.

The police had first managed to rescue one of the three – Md Hasim Ali Naskar, alias Pocha, who is only 13-year-old. The two other children Rafiqul Naskar (25) and Md Aman (12) were rescued from near Nimtala Ghat. The children were handed over to their parents.

It may be mentioned that some children are often found carrying wooden structures of immersed idols out of the river as they get money by selling the same. Sometimes they even risk their lives to get hold of those structures and this led to Friday's incident.

Local people lauded the police for their prompt action to rescue the children.