Two from Pune drown in Maharashtra waterfall

Two men from Pune, who went for a picnic along with four others, drowned in a waterfall near Koyna after their car met with an accident early on Sunday morning, a police officer said.

According to Mahesh Bhavikatti, an officer at the Koynanagar Police Station, the incident occurred at around 1 a.m. when the six friends left from Koyna for Pune in two separate vehicles.

"There is a bridge enroute near the Babhalnala falls preceded by a dangerous turn on the road. Preliminary investigations show that the car with two occupants dashed into the barricade on the bridge and fell into the gushing river below," Bhavikatti told IANS from the site.

There are massive boulders below the bridge -- some of them bigger than trucks -- which made the fall fatal and as water rushed into the car, they apparently could not escape.

The victims have been identified as Nitin Shelar (37) and Vaishakh Nambiar (38).

The body of one of the victims was recovered from the rocky river bed and efforts are on to retrieve the other victim stuck several metres below, even as extremely heavy rains hamper the operations, Bhavikatti said.

Their four friends, who had gone ahead, returned to look for them and are present at the accident site, the officer added. IANS