Balasore: Bodies of two Plus-Two students who reportedly drowned in Blue Lake near Mitrapur under Nilagiri police limits in the district on Saturday were recovered on Sunday, nearly 24 hours after they went missing.The deceased duo were identified as Bhavishya Patra (16) of Takatpur village under Baripada Town police limits in Mayurbhanj district and Anshuman Patra (16) of Apartibindha village under Bhadrak Town police limits. Both were Plus Two commerce students at Fakir Mohan College in Balasore. The two were reportedly taking selfies at the tourist spot on Saturday morning, accompanied by friend Roshan Nayak, who had a narrow escape.On being alerted, local police, fire services personnel, Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and a scuba-diving team launched a joint search operation to trace the missing students. The team found searching the extremely deep lake challenging because of its rocky underwater terrain.After nearly 24 hours of continuous efforts, the scuba divers finally located and recovered the bodies from the water around 12:30 pm on Sunday.Nilagiri IIC Gobardhan Nayak confirmed that both bodies were recovered around 24 hours after the incident.Police have registered an unnatural death case and initiated an investigation into the incident. Following post-mortem examinations, the bodies were handed over to the respective families.
