Seven school teachers, two girls drown at sea

Nine women, including seven school teachers, drowned in the sea  on Friday near Chorwad in Junagadh district, police said.

The incident happened when teachers of Rajkot based Genius International School and their daughters had gone for a picnic to Chorwad, officials said.

"Seven teachers and two girls, daughters of one of the teachers who was with the picnic group, drowned when they went to take bath in rough sea near Chorwad," DSP Mahinder Pawar said.

"Four other teachers who tried to save them are undergoing treatment in Chorwad hospital. They are out of danger now," Pawar said.

"The sea here is very rough right now and it seems that these women, all aged between 18 and 25, may have gone a bit far," the official said.

Villagers and police have fished out all the bodies, which have been sent for postmortem, he added.

Trustee of the school, Jitu Kothari said their teaching staff had gone to Chorwad and were scheduled to go to Somnath temple also.

"The incident has made all of us sad. We have rushed the principal to Chorwad to take stock of the situation", he said.