Murud beach tragedy: I felt the sand slipping beneath my feet, says survivor

“We had lunch and then decided to go into the water. The teachers were still having their lunch and we didn’t want to waste our time, so we proceeded. I didn’t go in deep water and just went a little ahead of the shore, only until the water was a few inches below my knee. I was throwing wet sand at a few friends who were around me and suddenly heard three girls screaming for help,” Sayyed said.

“The girls were pointing towards Swapnali Salgar who had started drowning right behind them. I started to go inside but then suddenly felt like the sand slipping away. I tried to swim but the current was getting stronger and that’s when I decided to turn back to save myself. I somehow managed to get myself out of the water,” a shaked Sayyed recalled.

On the shore, Sayyed watched with dread as he not only saw Swapnali drowning but also the three girls who were initially screaming for help. “A boy came out of the water and was running on the shore. He was screaming for help and crying profusely. We all then ran towards a boat which was a little distance away to help in pulling out our friends. The locals there also started to come running to help and soon many of those in the water were being pulled out,” he said.

Sayyed laments for his friend Iftekar Ansari, who he saw pushing a girl to safety. “I saw him in the water, he was trying to save a drowning girl. He first lifted her, above the water level and then pushed her towards the shore. But he himself got pulled in by the waves,” he rues.

Sayyed also said that some of those pulled out of the water were not responsive. “Some of our friends had frothed at the mouth by the time they were pulled out. They brought out their bodies and laid them on the beach and started pumping the water out of them. But it was too late. We didn’t know what to do and could only cry at the situation,” he said with wet eyes.

While the bodies were taken in an ambulance to the nearest hospital, Sayyed said that he and his surviving classmates were taken in the college bus. At the hospital, they were given water and food but no one touched it. “The girls were crying so bitterly, some of them were shivering in fear. We saw our friends’ dead bodies lying in front of us, those who had been playing and laughing with us only a few minutes back,” Sayyed sighs.