Two brothers who had gone to Gwalior Ghat in west-central Kolkata to attend the last rites of their grandfather went missing in the Hooghly on Wednesday morning, police said.
A search operation was initiated soon after the accident to trace the brothers but did not yield any results till late in the evening, the police said.
The missing persons have been identified Nitish Shaw, 17, and his elder brother Sunny, 21, residents of Karl Marx Sarani in Kidderpore, the police said.
“Around 9am, Nitish and Sunny went to Gwalior Ghat with his family members to observe the last rites of their grandfather. Nitish got down into the river Hoogly for a bath and went a little deep before he apparently got drifted away by the current,” said an officer of South Port police station.
Nitish’s elder brother Sunny jumped into the water to save him but he too got drifted because of the strong current, the officer added.
The disaster management group and the river traffic police started a search operation to find the two youths but failed to locate them till late on Wednesday evening, the officer said.
Police officers said according to the statement of the other members of the family, the younger boy did not realise the force of the current and kept on going deeper into the river till he lost control.
“They should not have gone so deep in the water when there was high tide. We are trying to find them. The search operation is on,” said an officer of the Port division on Wednesday.