Two girls swept away in Kalu river; body of one recovered

Thane, Sep 9 (PTI) A 10-year-old girl drowned and her sister was missing after they were swept away in the Kalu river while washing clothes in Titwala area of the district on Tuesday, a civic official said.

The deceased was identified as Sana Wahid Hussain Ansari. A search was on for Rukshan Wahid Hussain Ansari (15).

Both were residents of Zubair Chawl in Patilnagar, Vasundri village.

Namdev Chaudhary, Chief Fire Officer of the Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation, said, "The sisters had gone to the river to wash clothes in the afternoon. When a piece of cloth slipped into the water, one of them jumped in to retrieve it. She began to be swept away by the strong current, and in an attempt to save her, the younger sister also jumped in. Sadly, both were carried away by the flow." As the girls failed to return, their worried parents went to the riverbank where they found a bucket and clothes left on a stone. After a frantic search yielded no trace of the sisters, the family alerted the KDMC fire department.

"Our personnel immediately launched a tube boat and began searching the river, checking areas where the girls might have been trapped in bushes, silt or undergrowth. Sana's body surfaced due to water agitation and was recovered. She was declared dead on arrival at hospital," Chaudhary said.

The incident has cast a pall of grief over Patilnagar. PTI COR KRK