Teams of the State Disaster Response Force during a search operation for the missing boys in the Swarnamukhi river at Vedanthapuram village near Tirupati on Saturday. | Photo credit: BY ARRANGEMENT
TIRUPATI
The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) on Saturday (October 25, 2025) recovered the bodies of three boys who were washed away in the swirling current of Swarnamukhi River on Friday evening (October 24). Teams of rural police and SDRF in Tirupati toiled for 24 hours, wading into the river and braving heavy rains.
It may be mentioned here that seven boys went to bathe in the river to celebrate the birthday of one of them. However, he swept away four of them due to the strong current. The body of one boy Balu (18) was found immediately, that is on Friday evening.
The department even pressed drones into service to monitor areas adjacent to the river banks to locate possible survivors, but to no avail.
With a glimmer of hope that the boys might be alive and waiting for help, SDRF teams continued their search till Saturday evening only to find the bodies of the remaining three, identified as Prakash (17), Chinna (15) and Teju (19). All the boys were in a similar age group, some were studying SSC and others had dropped out of high school.
Chandragiri MLA Pulivarthi Venkata Mani Prasad (Nani) and Superintendent of Police L. Subbarayudu were present at the river front and monitored the rescue mission.
An autopsy was performed on all the bodies, which were later handed over to the families. It turned out that the parents did not know about the boys’ trip to the river, which was already under construction. They said some of them didn’t know how to swim.
Mr. Subbarayudu appealed to parents to constantly monitor the movement of their children and advised them to stay indoors during such adverse weather conditions. As a precautionary measure, the police and the finance department have set up barricades at all vulnerable places, especially near reservoirs, irrigation tanks, dams and culverts.
Published – 25 Oct 2025 20:18 IST
