Watch: People feared drowned as coracle overturns in Tungabhadra river

A video of 13 people, who are suspected to have been drowned after a coracle overturned during the immersion of a Ganesh idol Wednesday afternoon, was filmed by an amateur photographer on a cell phone. The incident happened in the Tungabhadra river near Hadonahalli in Karnataka. [caption id=“attachment_2996406” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Screengrab of the video.[/caption] The 2.20 minute long video shows 22 youths venturing into the Tungabhadra river carrying the Ganesh idol for immersion. The incident took place around 1 pm on Wednesday. The video clearly shows that the water currents were strong and as soon as the coracle reached the centre of the river, it overturned. Anticipating the mishap, nine people in the coracle jumped off immediately and swam to safety. People standing on the bank tried to warn the other occupants about the position of the coracle. Few of them even jumped into the river and swam towards the victims to try to save them. Till Thursday morning, bodies of seven victims were recovered. Six others are yet to be traced. Police said that the bodies were recovered by divers from Harihar town. The deceased have been identified as Shivakumar (22), Manjappa (35), Veeresh (20), Veerabhadra (28), Jeevan (21), Ganesh (21), and Ramesh (23) The six missing victims have been identified as – Chandrappa, , Shankar, Gangesh, Nayan, Sagar and Ramesh. Police said that a team of expert divers from the Indian navy has been called to join the search operations on Thursday. You can watch the video here: