Six, including three schoolgirls, drown in Assam

GUWAHATI - Six people, including three schoolgirls and three of a family, drowned Monday in Assam’s rain-swollen rivers, police said.

Three school girls drowned and two went missing while they were taking a dip at Mangaldoi river near Mangaldoi town (about 80 km from here), a police spokesperson said.

“As part of the Hindu festival of Bol Bom, crowds converged at the river bank to perform certain rituals when three girls drowned,” the police official said.

Rescue workers recovered bodies of three girls and efforts were on to locate the other two missing girls.

In a separate incident, three members of a family - father and his two sons - drowned while fishing at Teok river in Jorhat district.

In another incident, a boy was killed when lightning struck him near Bijni in Bongaigaon - even this boy was part of a Bol Bom procession in the area.