6 GIRLS FEARED DEAD AS BOAT WITH 31 PEOPLE CAPSIZES IN AP

HYDERABAD: Six students, all girls, were feared drowned when the boat they were travelling in capsized in Godavari river near Pasuvula Lanka village of Andhra Pradesh’s East Godavari district on Saturday.

Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister Nimmakayala Chinna Rajappa said 31 people, mostly students, were travelling in the boat. “Of them, 25 persons have been rescued so far and six students are still missing. We stopped rescue operations as it was getting dark and Godavari river was in spate,” said Chinna Rajappa.

The missing girls were all students of Government High School, Pasuvula Lanka. According to locals, the students were forced to travel across the river to participate in state government’s Vanam-manam (Forest and We) programme, despite Saturday being a holiday for schools.

The accident occurred around 4.30pm when the boat hit the pillar of a partially constructed bridge and overturned into waters that had turned turbulent due to the opening of sluice gates at an upstream barrage.

Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu said teams of the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force from Rajamahendravaram and Visakhapatnam have been deployed for the rescue operation along with police and revenue personnel.

››FULL REPORT, P8 MOSCOW: Sunday’s World Cup final between Croatia and France is a layered study in contrasts. On one side of the pitch is a team from a country with a population of 4.2 million, a fourth Delhi’s, and which doesn’t have a strong domestic football league. On the other, standing between it and its first World Cup is France, a team that knows what it takes to win one. The French team, birthed from a quality youth development programme, marries attacking class with superb defensive organisation.

At different times in Russia, especially in the knockout rounds, Croatia’s performance resembled that of Muhammad Ali during his 1974 “rumble in the jungle” with George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire. Ali suffered for seven rounds before winning.

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