Two youngsters were swept away in strong currents in the Raite river in Thane district of Maharashtra during Chhath Puja 2025 and a search was underway for them, police said on Tuesday, reported the PTI.
The incident took place in the Kalyan taluka police station limits on Monday evening.
The missing youngsters were identified as Prince Gupta (16) and Rajan Vishwakarma (18), both residents of the area, as per the PTI.
Eyewitnesses said that one of them slipped into the river while performing rituals. The other rushed in to rescue him, but both were quickly pulled under by the swift current.
The locals immediately raised an alarm and informed the police and the fire brigade that rushed to the spot.
The police and Fire Brigade teams along with local villagers launched a massive search operation that continued late into the night but could not locate the youngsters.
The rescue operations resumed at around 7 am on Tuesday, said an official, the news agency reported.
Meanwhile, in an another similar incidents, as many as three people have drowned in separate incidents during Chhath Puja 2025 celebrations in Uttar Pradesh`s Ballia district, police said on Tuesday, reported the PTI.
According to officials, the deaths were reported from Nagra, Bansdih, and Maniyar police station areas of the Ballia district on Monday.
At Nagra, 28-year-old Mahesh Patel slipped into a pond while collecting water for Chhath rituals. The villagers rescued him and took him to a local hospital, and then to the district hospital where doctors declared him dead.
In the second incident, 50-year-old Dhela Mishra drowned in a pond near a temple at Agaur village under the Bansdih police station area while taking a holy dip on the occasion of Chhath Puja.
The police said that his body was later retrieved from the water and sent for postmortem to a nearby hospital.
Meanwhile, in an another incident at Mallowa village under the Maniyar police station limits, Anuj Paswan drowned while preparing a ritual platform (`bedi`) near a pond. He was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
(with PTI inputs)
