Vadodara: Six persons were rescued from the Panam river near Kanjeta village in Dhanpur taluka of Dahod district on Friday morning. The six included three workers who were removing sand from the river. The incident took place when five workers and a tractor driver were removing sand from the river.
Due to heavy rain in the catchment area, the water level in the river started rising at an alarming rate. Also, the current was strong, leaving the workers stranded in the river. There was a mound in the river on which the six took shelter.
The person who was driving the tractor left the river with the vehicle even as two workers managed to swim to safety. This left three workers stranded on the mound. Meanwhile, three persons reached the site on hearing about the incident and they swam up to the mound.
But they were not able to get the three workers out of the river. Soon, fire brigades of nearby towns were informed about the incident by the Dahod disaster control room. The Devgadh Baria municipality fire department was the first to respond.
In-charge sub fire officer Mayur Chauhan said that they were able to reach some distance inside the river safely with the help of a rope. “However, the current was very strong in a stretch of around 20 feet and the water was also deep,” he said. The firemen then threw a rope as well as life jackets towards the six persons stranded on the mound.
When the six managed to reach the firemen holding the rope, they were brought out of the river. .