We will not give up on Slade’: Search continues for missing Belhar weightlifting champion
The family of missing Belhar athlete Slade van der Walt has appealed for help as the search continues after he entered the water at Strand Beach to assist someone in distress.
A search for two missing youths, Kuppala Raj Kumar and his cousin Kuppala Vinay Kumar, continues in the Veligonda Project feeder canal near Dornala in Markapuram district. The two men, aged 23, were reportedly swept away by the canal's waters on Saturday at noon while attempting to wash their legs. Local residents alerted the police at around 1 p.m. when the youths failed to return.
District Superintendent of Police V. Harshavardhan Raju stated that 16 expert swimmers from the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were deployed for the search, which persisted until Sunday evening. The rescue operation has been challenging due to the feeder canal's rapid water flow and the uneven terrain's difficulty in assessing water depth.
The local Minister for Water Resources, Nimmala Ramanaidu, expressed shock over the incident and directed officials to intensify search efforts to locate the missing youths' bodies. Earlier this week, another unfortunate event occurred when a vehicle carrying four individuals was swept away by a strong current near Kalanuthala village, with one person escaping and three others rescued from a tree.
Written by urgent.news from The Hindu's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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