The bodies of four people, including two women, who drowned in the Yamuna river while taking a bath after Ganesh idol immersion, were recovered from near Palla Bakhtawarpur village on Friday, the Delhi Fire Service said.
The deceased have been identified as Umesh Yadav (20), Priyanka (20), Pinki (21) and Nikit (21), all residents of Nihal Vihar, Nangloi, they said.
The Fire Department received information about some people drowning in the river around 9 pm on Thursday, officials said.
"After receiving the information about the incident, we rushed to the spot with a fire tender and initiated the rescue operation," a senior fire official said.
According to police, Umesh, Priyanka, Pinki and Nikit were part of a group of 30 people who were headed to bathe in the river after performing Ganesh Puja.
"They were stopped at Shani Mandir and Bakhtawar Pur, and advised by civil defence and police staff to avoid bathing in the river," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer North) Gaurav Sharma said.
The group initially agreed to the requests but later eight of them decided to take a bath, he said.
Police were informed that eight people, who were bathing on the banks of the Yamuna, had ventured into deeper waters and four of them had drowned, the officials said.
The rescue operation was conducted by Delhi Fire Service, Disaster Management Services, civil defence staff and Delhi Police, they said.
The operation went on till Thursday midnight. It was resumed around 6 am this morning and all four bodies were recovered, they added.
"We had placed barricades and tried to stop them. They told us that they were not going for the immersion. However, they managed to reached the river," a civil defence volunteer said.
According to Pinki's family, she died two days before her birthday.
"It would have been her 22nd birthday on Saturday. We were shocked to hear about the incident... we didn't know that she went inside the river," one of her family members said.
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