When two strangers turned angel for two rescued teenagers

SURAT: Surajdev Singh (50) proved to be an angel for two of the four teenagers who fell in the

causeway

at Singanpore on Monday. While two were rescued by Singh and others,

two others drowned.

Singh said he will regret the rest of his life that he was not able to save the two who drowned.

Singh, a crane operator in a private company, was returning home at Sahajanad Society in Singanpore village on his bicycle when he heard a cries of help and was kids drowning.

Without thinking even for a second, Singh flung his bicycle and jumped into the water. Born in a village on Azamgad-Gorakhpur border on shores of river Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh, Singh is an experienced swimmer.

He first pulled out one of the boys and jumped back into the water. By that time another man Harshad Bhavsar (47), an accountant, had come to his aide.

Singh managed to get hold of another boy and brought him out with the help of Bhavsar. The two boys they saved were Mohammad Shaikh and Sohel Pathan.

Singh went into the water for the third time, but could not find the other two boys — Akhlad Shaikh and Mohammad Zahid Patida — who had drowned by that time.

Talking to TOI, Singh said, “I will regret for the rest of my life for not being able to save the other two boys.”

Bhavsar, who aided Singh, said, “We had nothing, no swimming safety ring or rope to that could aide rescue. If we had those we could have saved other two lives also.”

“May be god sent me early from my native where I had gone for a marriage function. My family is still there and I had to return early to resume duty,” Singh said.