Two people drown, two go missing at Pakala Beach in Andhra Pradesh

A jolly trip of a group of around 70 persons turned tragic as two of them drowned and another two went missing at Pakala Beach of Prakasam district on Saturday.“Around 70 persons from Srirangapuram village in Kanigiri mandal came to the beach in three batches in three private vehicles around 2 p.m on Saturday. All of them are masons working in Hyderabad,” Ongole Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) R. Srinivasa Rao told to he Hindu.They came to their native village for Vinayaka Chavithi celebrations and stayed back to celebrate Kolupulu (village Goddess festival) two days ago. They were supposed to go back to work in a few days, he informed.They came to Pakala Beach for a short trip. While taking a bath, seven of them went deep into the water and were swept away by the strong waves. The other members of the group alerted the police.The Singarayakonda police rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation with the help of expert swimmers. Three people were rescued. One of them is stable, while another one was admitted to RIMS Hospital and another to Aster Ramesh Hospital in Ongole.The deceased have been identified as Teja (23) and Mahesh (24), while Vishnu (17) and Narayana (32) were still missing. The search opeation were on when the last report came in. Published - October 10, 2026 06:58 pm IST