A tea estate official’s wife and minor daughter were swept away in the Nagrakata block of Jalpaiguri district on Sunday afternoon while they were taking bath in a small stream that swelled up because of heavy rain in the neighbouring Bhutan.

Biswas, the assistant manager (factory) of the Gathia tea garden, his wife Camelia, 40, and daughter, Rajyaya, 13, were in the stream, along with five of their relatives, when the incident occurred.

The six others have been admitted to the local primary health centre.

Rupak and the family, who lived at Bagha Jatin Colony in Siliguri, arrived in the garden to stay at his bungalow, along with their relatives, a few days back.

The relatives were Ayan Ghosh Dastidar, 44, Somlata Bhowmik, 40, and Kanishka Ghosh, 12, of Santoshpur in Calcutta, Sandipan Dutta, 46, and his spouse Agami, 40, from Siliguri.

On Sunday, all of them went to take bath in the Gathia stream that flows through the junction of Bhagatpur and Gathia tea gardens.

Around 12.45pm, a flash flood struck suddenly and all eight were carried away by the severe current.

“Some tribal residents were attending a religious programme nearby. They jumped into the water and managed to rescue four persons. The other two got on the bank themselves. However, Camelia and Rajyaya could not be traced. After an extensive search, their bodies were found quite far away from the spot. The rescuers said the duo could not be saved as it was difficult to find them, fighting against strong currents,” said a source.

Sofiar Rahaman, a local resident, said Rupak Biswas should have been cautious when he had noticed that the water was fast changing its colour and becoming muddy.

“This was an indication of a flash flood although there was no rainfall in Nagrakata. Heavy rainfall in the Bhutan hills caused the flash flood,” he said.

Another resident said: “Since tribal people were present nearby, they could plunge into the stream and rescue some people. Otherwise, there would have been more fatalities.”

Koushik Karmakar, the inspector-in-charge of Nagrakata police station, said: “Of eight people who were taking bath in the stream, two died because of a flash flood.

Rest are under treatment at Shulkapara block primary health centre.”

2 die in accident

Two persons were killed at Choa village in the jurisdiction of Hariharpara police station in Murshidabad district when a truck hit an e-rickshaw head on around 12 noon on Sunday. Siraj Sheikh, 60, the e-rickshaw driver, and passenger Ozifa Bibi, 50, died on spot. Ozifa’s husband Azad Sheikh and another passenger Torifa Bewa suffered injuries.