Bokaro, July 26: A man, identified only as Ramesh by the Bokaro Thermal police station, all but managed to drown himself and his two children, aged nine and seven years respectively, besides two unidentified women yesterday evening while speaking over the cellphone.

The man was driving a white Maruti (JH 11 A 5721) and had started off from Ranchi. He approached Bokaro around 7.30 in the evening.

In his anxiety to reach his destination, he did not stop while receiving a call on his mobile. With one hand he steered the car but was forced to take a sharp turn near the Chilka bridge.

The driver lost control of the car and it fell headlong into the Bokaro river from a height of approximately 30 feet.

The dramatic fall and the screams of the passengers brought traffic on the bridge and the adjoining highway to a standstill.

But even as the car wobbled in the water, none of the onlookers, who numbered more than one hundred according to the police, ventured to rescue them.

It was then that the good samaritans arrived in the form of Ashok Kumar Swarnakar and Mohammad Feroze.

The two were travelling on a motorcycle but as soon as they realised the gravity of the situation, claimed the police, the two young men jumped into the river with their clothes on.

The assembled crowd watched their heroics with bated breath as they struggled to open the jammed door of the vehicle.

But their efforts finally bore fruit as they succeeded in rescuing all the five passengers.

Miraculously, all of them had sustained only minor injuries and were suffering merely from shock.

Their condition is stated to be stable. The two children, however, were suspected to have fractured their limbs and were rushed to Ranchi for check-up.

No details were made available by the police barring the names of the two brave young men, said to be in their late twenties.

The police, however, claimed that hundreds of onlookers had applauded their act of courage.

While the dramatic account of the accident and the rescue at Bokaro Thermal, 46 kms from here, became a talking point, people and the police also expressed their concern at the hundreds of mute spectators making no effort at all to rescue the family.