Three engineering students drowned while bathing in a pond of Murubanda village in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district on Sunday, police said.

The incident took place in Rajrappa police station area when the students of Ramgarh Government Engineering College went to the pond located around 1 km from the institution for a bath in the morning, district Superintendent of Police Prabhat Kumar said.

Local residents of Murubanda village rushed to site after getting information tried their best to save the trio but informed police when they failed in their attempt after which the dead body of deceased students had been fished from the pond by police with the help of local divers. The dead body of the trio was later sent for post mortem.

Local residents, meanwhile blocked Bokaro Ranchi main road for more than half an hour which was cleared after the arrival of police.

The deceased Electrical Engineering students included Ankit Kumar of Bokaro, Abhishek Kumar of Giridih and Rohan Malakar of Dhanbad.

Sharbani Ray, principal of the college, said that the deceased were third year students.

Chitragupt Mahto, a local social worker of Murbanda Village of Rajrappa said, “the trio came for weekend outing in villages and were bathing on the bank of pond when one of them, Abhishek Kumar of Giridih slipped into the pond and two others also jumped into the pond to save him and trio started drowning”.

“I tried my best to save one of the students but failed despite my effort and resultantly shouted after which more than 100 villagers also reached and tried to save them but all our attempt to rescue them failed” said Mahto and added that large number of students of Ramgarh Engineering College arrive in the village during the weekend and other holidays spend some time in serene locales of village.

“Some of students also enjoy bathing and swimming in ponds as the rush is relatively more during the summer season but unfortunately the three students who arrived yesterday didn’t know how to swim and died due to drowning” said Mahto and also appealed to the engineering college administration to keep tab on the movement of students outside the campus.

Vipin Kumar, officer in charge of Rajrappa police station said “We have sent the dead body of the trio of post mortem, which was fished out about an hour after the incident and informed their family members at the their place”

“The dead bodies would be handed over to respective families after completion of legal and medical formalities,” said Kumar.