Kalimpong, Aug. 18: The five persons who went missing after their vehicle plunged into the Teesta near Rongpo on Saturday night remained untraced despite the combined efforts of their families and police.

A search operation has been on since yesterday but without much success, the police said.

The Maruti Omni with six persons on board had plunged into the Teesta. While Krishna Limbu, an ITI student of Rongpo, managed to swim to safety, five others are missing.

The missing persons are Hira Pradhan, Sanjay Rajbongshi, Sanjay Biswakarma, Golden Rai and Vikram Mangar.

The families of the missing persons have also joined the recovery operation. “We have also engaged river rafters to trace them. However, the chances of finding them in the vicinity of the accident site look remote,” said a police officer.

The Kalimpong police have alerted their counterparts in the Bhaktinagar and New Jalpaiguri police stations in Jalpaiguri district in view of a strong possibility of bodies being swept downstream by the heavy currents of the Teesta.

“We are in constant touch with the two police stations because in the past bodies that have drowned in the upstream have been recovered in the plains,” the official added.