Four students drown in Trincomalee Sea

[TamilNet, Sunday, 19 March 2006, 12:26 GMT]
Four students, three Tamil and one Burgher, drowned in the Trincomalee Dutch Bay Sea around noon on Sunday caught in the under current while they were spending an afternoon with friends. The bodies of the dead are lying in the mortuary of the Trincomalee general hospital, hospital sources said.

Of the four two of them were brothers Manoj Diyan (19) and Sanoj Oshan (18) studying in Trincomalee Sri Koneswara Hindu College. The distraught father, Mr Pathmanathan, who runs a hairdressing saloon in Trincomalee said that this was the first time his sons had gone for swimming in the sea.

The eldest son has completed GCE A/L/ and the younger was expecting GCE O/L, which is expected to be released next week, he said.

The third student, Babu Vije, is a student of Trincomalee Punithavalanar Tamil School studying in the Grade 10.

The fourth, Bruno Jacob, is a student at Trincomalee Sinhala Madhya Maha Vidiyalayam. His mother passed away few months before, sources said.

Bathing in the Trincomalee Dutch Bay Sea is prohibited between the months of November to April due to undercurrent. The site where the tragedy took place Sunday is behind the Gandhi Statue roundabout where on January 2nd five Tamil students were killed by armed forces, sources said.