A 21-year-old student drowned in a 300 feet lake at the Keerapakkam stone quarry near Guduvancheri in Tamil Nadu on Sunday, April 16. The deceased person, identified as Karthikeyan, had gone swimming with his four friends Mohan, Varun, Agatheeswaran and Vignesh when the incident occurred. According to the Times of India, Karthikeyan did not know how to swim but still ventured into the deep waters which led to the tragedy.

After the accident occurred, his friends had alerted the fire and rescue services who searched for Karthikeyan’s body for several hours. However, their search operations were halted as they could not find the body well into the late hours of the night. On Monday, April 17, a team of rescue personnel were able to retrieve Karthikeyan’s body after nearly three hours of searching.

Police told the Times of India that this is the fourth incident of drowning at the quarry in the last three months. The police also said that since there are restrictions on swimming at the beaches, people resort to water bodies at the quarries. Reports said that there are close to 12 quarries at the Keerapakkam panchayat limit that are frequented by students from Chennai, Tambaram, Guduvancheri and Kelambakkam. 

Residents of Keerapakkam also told the Times of India that the police must enforce a ban on students from swimming at the water bodies at the quarry to prevent accidents like this. They added that signboards should be erected warning people about the dangers of swimming in these water bodies.