Shepherd, nephew drown in river near Tuticorin

TUTICORIN: A

shepherd

and his

nephew

drowned in a river at Perilovanpatti in

Tuticorin

district on Friday.

The deceased have been identified as K Ramaraj, 37, and P Sendrayaperumal, 16, of the same village. Ramaraj is a shepherd while his nephew is a Class IX student in a government school.

On Friday, Ramaraj took his goats to the river Vaippar to clean them. Sendrayaperumal accompanied him. Quoting onlookers, police said that the boy was caught in the deeper portion of the river and was battling for his life. Ramaraj rushed to his rescue, but both drowned.

Villagers alerted the Vilathikulam police and the fire and rescue services personnel. The bodies were recovered and sent for postmortem.