Cuttack, April 2: Four Ravenshaw University students, who had gone to take a bath in the Mahanadi river, drowned near the Jobra barrage here today.

The deceased have been identified as Pritiranjan Das, Pyari Mohan Pradhan, Deba Prasad Rath and Sehnawaz Khan.

All the victims, in the age group between 20 and 21 years, were Plus Three second-year students of Ravenshaw University. While Pritiranjan and Pyari Mohan were students of information technology and management, Deba Prasad and Sehnawaz were studying information science and technology.

A local resident, Bichitrananda Mohapatra, 42, who happened to be there at the time of the mishap, saved Amit Meher, another student of information technology and management of the university.

The incident took place when a group of five students of the varsity had gone to take a bath in the river around 3pm after their classes were over, police said. All the students had attended their respective classes and left the university around 2pm. Later, after having lunch in a hotel at Jobra, all of them went to the river.

"I was passing by the Jobra barrage and suddenly heard the boys' screaming. I rescued one of them with the help of a towel. As the other four students had already been dragged deep into the river, I could not save them," said Mohapatra.

Later, Mohapatra informed Malgodown police and the fire brigade.

Following the incident, two fire brigade teams had launched a search for the bodies. The first body was recovered 20 minutes after the rescue operation was launched around 3.45pm. All the four bodies were recovered by 6.30pm.

"We had initially received information about the incident around 3.30pm, after which two separate teams consisting of 10 to 12 officers launched a rescue operation to fish out the bodies from the river," said city fire officer Chandra Mohan Routray.

Routray said that as there was a strong current, the boys were dragged into the river and three bodies had been recovered from nearly 15 to 20ft deep water. Students, varsity officials, policemen and the district collector had rushed to spot after getting information about the incident.

"I was washing utensils when the boys reached the ghat around 2.45pm. I had not anticipated that something tragic like this was going to happen to the young students, who were in a jovial mood," said Saudamini Nayak, another local resident.

The police said that as there was almost none near the barrage due to the extreme heat wave conditions in the afternoon, the students could not be saved.

Local residents alleged that the ban on fishing in the area has its flipside as well. Had the fishermen been there, they could have rescued the drowning students or could have joined the rescue operation, said a local resident.

"We will urge the district administration to install proper signage with danger mark to caution those coming here for bath," said Pramod Pati, general secretary of the Ravenshaw Students' Union.

Pati said a delegation of the students' union would take up the issue with senior officials of the district administration.

"Everybody in the university is deeply shocked, and we will shortly create awareness among the students to stay away from the river by organising sensitisation programmes," said Ravenshaw University vice-chancellor Prakash Chandra Sarangi.