A young man and a teenager on a scooter drowned in a Haridevpur pond after the rider lost balance and fell during Monday night’s heavy rain.

The accident in a neighbourhood called Philips Colony, on the southern fringe of Calcutta, was reported to police around 8.40pm.

“According to a witness account, around 8pm, the scooter lost balance on a road that was flooded with pond water and fell into the pond at the turning of the road. It
was raining very heavily and visibility was poor,” said an officer of Haridevpur police station.

Amit Kumar Singh, 22, from Balia in Uttar Pradesh had come to a relative’s house, and Tanish Prasad, 15, who lived in the neighbourhood, were travelling along the pond when they fell in, police said.

Philips Colony is a cluster of buildings along 1/1 Kailash Ghosh Road in Haridevpur.

Disaster management group personnel started a rescue operation and the two were brought out of the water. They were taken to MR Bangur Hospital around 10.30pm and declared dead.

The police said no foul play was detected.

“We did not receive any complaint from the respective families till Tuesday evening,” said an officer.

On Monday evening, the Met Office recorded 50mm of rainfall in Alipore between 7pm and 8.30pm.

It is not advisable to travel during gusty winds and thundershowers, an officer said. “If someone is outdoors, they should wait under a shed or a dry place for the rain to stop. The chances of accidents increase during thunderstorms,” he said.