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16 children, teacher drown as boat capsizes in Kashmir

At least 16 school children were drowned when the boat carrying them on a joyride capsized in the Wullar lake in Baramulla district of J&K.

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SRINAGAR: At least 16 school children and a teacher were drowned on Tuesday when the boat carrying them on a joyride capsized in the Wullar lake in Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, a senior police official said.

Navy divers have fished out 17 bodies so far and are scouring the waters of the lake at Watlab, 60km from Srinagar, for more bodies or possible survivors, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir range, S M Sahai said.

He said the dead included a teacher who had accompanied the students of Burn Candle High School in the border town of Handwara in Kupwara district to an excursion to the Asia's largest fresh water lake. Watlab is the place where the lake originates.

The school children requested a naval sailor to take them for a boat ride in the lake as they had never experienced it before, the Defence spokesman said.

He said the sailor took the children on the boat after seeking proper permission but the boat capsized due to weight imbalance created by the over-excitement of the kids.

Sahai said 12 students and a teacher have been rescued by Navy divers. However, the total number of missing persons could not be ascertained with any precision, he said.

The Defence spokesman said the exact number of children on board the boat could not be ascertained as the teacher and rescued children were in a state of shock and could not speak.

As the news of the mishap spread, anxious parents and relatives of the students, who came all the way from Handwara to Watlab, turned violent and were joined by some locals in torching a tourism hut on the bank of the lake.

Rescue work has been hampered by darkness and formation of innumberable whirlpools in the lake during evening hours.

Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad expressed his grief and said an inquiry would be conducted into the incident.

"Our prime focus right now is to see how many people we can rescue from the lake," he said.

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