Palakkad: Five students from Coimbatore drowned in the Koolankal River near the Sholayar Estate at Valparai on Friday.
Kinathukadavu natives, Ajay son of Ravikumar, Dhanush s/o Ramakrishnan and Vinith s/o Ramakrishnan, Ukkadam native Nafil s/o Shajahan and Sarath were the deceased.
They were part of a group that was picnicking in the region when the accident occured around 4.30 pm.
According to reports, one of the students slipped into a deep end and the others drowned when they attempted to rescue him.
A local Fire Force unit arrived to recover the bodies. They were students of SNMV College in Coimbatore.
(to be updated)