Schoolboy saves friend from watery grave

TOI

Mangalore, 23 Jun 2018: A schoolboy saved his friend from a watery grave at Gadinje in Venur, 60km from here, on Thursday.

 

Sujaya, 11 and Adithya, 12, both students of Government Higher Primary School, were walking home after class. As they were crossing a swollen stream, Adithya missed a step on the temporary narrow footbridge and slipped. Sujaya rushed to his aid and grabbed him as he was hanging from the bridge.

 

 

Without losing hope, Sujaya used all his strength to hold on to Adithya. As the duo started screaming for help, locals rushed to the spot and pulled up Adithya. Eyewitnesses said if Adithya had fallen into the water, he would have been injured and got washed away.

 

The distance between the temporary footbridge and stream is about 20ft. “If the boys had fallen into the water, they could have died,” said a villager. In villages of the coastal district, makeshift bridges across swollen streams are a common sight during monsoon. Villagers risk their lives using them.