Joining the search operations for a six-year-old girl who was washed away on Thursday evening after falling into a stormwater drain here, the Indian Navy has pressed two helicopters and two ships into service.
Adithi, a first standard student of Etasi Timpany School here, while returning from tuition along with three other girls, accidentally slipped and fell into the drain at HB Colony here while getting into a car.
The area was waterlogged due to flash floods caused by heavy rains. She was swept away the moment she fell into the drain.
Over 500 personnels from police, fire service and the municipal corporation apart from the local fishermen joined the search operations today.
However till late night there was no trace of the girl.
After the search at the Lawson' s beach, Appughar, Rushikonda and RK Beach in the city was fruitless, the search teams including divers from the Navy and fishermen combed the entire 3-km stretch of the drain from HB Colony to MVP Colony but in vain, said the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) commissioner G Pravin Kumar.
Fishermen and fire service personnel searched the coastal area in the afternoon in four mechanised boats.
On the request from the district administration, the Navy deployed two helicopters to search the sea close to Lawson's Bay Colony beach and two ships to look for her in the deep sea.
The girl's father C Srinivas works as a software engineer in Bangaluru. He and his wife Radhika also visited the beach area and were apprised of the search operations.
