Student drowns in Calicut university swimming pool

Kozhikode: An 18-year-old student died in a suspected case of drowning at the swimming pool of the University of Calicut at Thenhipalam on Monday.

The deceased has been identified as Shehan  (18) of Edavanna, 13 km from Manjeri town in Malappuram district. He was the son of writer-teacher Abdullakutty Edavana and Rumanath. 

Shehan was a first-year student of the university's integrated PG course in Development Studies, said Dr Sakeer Hussain V P, director of the university's Department of Physical Education. "He was possibly a part of a group of students that trespassed into the swimming pool in the early hours of Monday. We don't know how many students were there," he said. Shehan was an inmate of the university's hostel.

Around 5.15 am, an unidentified student called the university's ambulance service to take Shehan to hospital. "He was taken to Kozhikode Medical College. But I don't think he survived the journey," said Dr Hussain. An autopsy will determine the cause of death, he said.

He said the university's pool opens at 6.30 am. But the students jumped the wall and entered the pool unsupervised, possibly around 4.45 am, he said. "We knew such things were happening. So we recently increased the height of the wall," he said.

The university has two swimming pools, one for warmups and one for competitions. The accident happened at the competition pool that has a uniform depth of 2 metres (6.5ft), he said.

The warmup pool's shallow end has a depth of 70m (2.3ft) and the depth gradually increases to a maximum of 170m (5.5ft). "An accident would not happen at the warmup pool," he said.