Death toll in Navy boat tragedy touches 22

Handwara, North Kashmir, May 31 (UNI) With the recovery of five more bodies today, the toll in yesterday's boat capsize in Kashmir has touched 22, a senior police officer said.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Handwara told UNI that five more bodies were recovered from the Wullar lake this morning and search was continuing.

He said the exact number of missing students and teachers was not immediately known as conflicting reports are pouring in about the total number of students who were in the Navy boat when it capsized in the Wullar Lake, the second largest lake in Asia.

The SP said about 78 students in the age group of seven years to 14 years and staff of Borne Tyndle Public School, Handwara, were on an excursion trip to Wullar yesterday.

As soon as the boat, carring about 30 to 40 of them, reached the middle of the lake, it capsized. Navy divers and civlians immediately jumped into the lake and could save about 20 of them.

The rescue operation was called off because of darkness and resumed only this morning.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has expressed grief and sorrow over the death of the school children.

A defence ministry spokesman said the children were on a picnic to Wullar when they had requested the Navy personnel, deployed in the lake for counter-insurgency operations, to take them for a ride on the motorboat, he added.

He said the sailors after getting permission from their officer took the children in two boats. The other boat had returned safely.

UNI BAS MSJ KN1031