Two young men have drowned while bathing in the Nanu Oya canal, which runs from Nuwara Eliya towards the Kotmale Reservoir, police said.
The dead have been named as Perumal Thivakaran, 23, of Edinburgh Estate in Nanu Oya, and Amalagan Dickson, 24, of Haputale, Ada Derana reported.
The two were bathing in the canal in the Radella Glasgow Estate area along with several relatives, according to the Officer-in-Charge of the Nanu Oya Police Station. Amalagan, who had travelled from Haputale to visit relatives at Edinburgh Estate, went under and disappeared while bathing. Perumal then entered the water to try to reach him and also drowned.
Nanu Oya police officers and local residents recovered both bodies from a deep section of the canal.
The bodies have been taken to Nuwara Eliya District Hospital, where post-mortem examinations are to be carried out by the District Medical Officer, an officer investigating the incident said.
The Nanu Oya channel carries hill-country water down towards the Kotmale Reservoir and runs past the estate settlements above Nanu Oya town. Bathing places on upcountry canals and streams can shelve steeply into deep pools with little warning, and drownings during rescue attempts — where a second person enters the water after the first — are a recurring pattern in Sri Lankan drowning deaths.
Not reported
Ada Derana did not say when the drownings occurred, how many relatives were present, or whether anyone else entered the water. It did not report whether either man could swim, or give the depth of the section the bodies were recovered from.
The report does not say whether the stretch is a customary bathing spot, whether it carries any warning signage, or whether the canal was running at an unusual level. No inquest date was given.
Ada Derana attributes the account to its own reporter and to the Officer-in-Charge of Nanu Oya Police Station. It is the only outlet to have carried the story.
