In a tragic incident that shook the entire district, 6 students and their teacher, who went on a picnic near the banks of Godavari River at Kakaraparru village of Peravali Mandalam in West Godavari district, drowned in the swirling waters of the river on Sunday.

Their bodies were recovered this morning after several hours of search by fishermen and rescue teams. With the news spreading, a pall of gloom descended across the district.

Police said teacher Lakshmi Prasanna (35) along with 73 students of Tanuku town went on a picnic to the picturesque Kakaraparru surroundings by autos as part of the Karthika Masam festival days. The students are from Zilla Parishad High School, AKTP School and Municipal school in the Tanuku town.

Reports said 10 of them went for a bath into Godavari around 12 noon but six of them slipped into the swirling waters and teacher Lakshmi Prasanna tried to save them. The students and the teacher were dragged into the deep waters with in seconds.

Rescue teams, which began the search since Sunday evening and worked through the night, recovered the 7 bodies by this morning. On the orders of the Chief Minister Kirankumar Reddy, district collector also camped in the village and supervised the operation.

The dead are identified as 9th class students B. Rajeswari, 14, P. Venkataramana,14, Y.Mohan rao, 14, 7th class student G. Sunitha, 12 , 5th class students P. Siva Krishna Murthy,10 and A. Venkatesh, 10 besides the teacher.