Teen drowns, 3 friends missing off Juhu beach

MUMBAI: Three youngsters aged 16-17, were feared drowned off Juhu beach as an evening outing went wrong on Thursday. A fourth, Nazeer Ghanchi, was declared dead after being washed ashore five hours after the incident.
Seven friends, all from the Gilbert Hill precinct in Andheri (west), had gone to the seafront to celebrate the birthday of Fardeen Saudagar.While three were rescued soon, Fardeen, Sohail Khan and Faisal Shaikh were missing till late in the night.

The youths, six of whom had completed Class X exams and were looking forward to college, arrived at the Godrej Bungalow portion of Juhu Beach around 3pm without informing their families. It was high tide and four of them decided to go deep in the water.
Around 4.30pm the four were holding hands and wading in when they were suddenly swept up by the strong current. One of the onlookers from the group, Wasim Khan, jumped into the water in an attempt to save them. "But within moments the waves pulled them in," Wasim said. "I, too, lost my balance. I was deep in the water and struggling to breathe when the firemen threw a rescue float and hauled me out."
Wasim's cousin, Sohail, had gone to check his name in the FYJC admission list in the morning and was in a happy mood, said his relatives. Back home in Gilbert Hill, neighbours huddled around their mothers. The group brought a large pile of date seeds and began to pray the Surah YaSin over them for Sohail's safe return.
Relatives rushed to the beachfront. One of them said a rescue boat was parked on the road near the beach and on their insistence firemen brought it into the sea for the search, but it failed to start. Divers were searching for the boys and the navy offered its help.
The operation was continuing when at 9.30pm, someone informed the police that one of the teenagers had washed ashore a kilometre away. The police and firemen went over to find the boy alive. They rushed him to a nearby hospital. "We started the operations, and put up a 2.5km search bar on both sides of the drowning location," Prashant Parulekar, a fire officer, said. "We have sought the navy's help as well. But at night it is difficult to find them."
Meher Haider, local corporator of Ward 66, which oversees Gilbert Hill, said: "It smacks of the BMC's negligence that they were unable to provide proper rescue equipment at the beach. The rescue boat parked near the spot failed to start. This is the most dangerous portion of the seashore. During high tide and heavy rain they should close access to avoid such incidents."
As they received word of the drowning at Juhu, the navy pressed a Seaking 42 C helicopter with divers into action. They carried out the search and rescue operation in the area where four out of the five boys were believed to have drowned. The search will continue on Friday morning. The coast guard helicopter will be deployed by first light on Friday.
The men, including the fathers and brothers of the youths, kept a vigil at the beachfront while the women prayed in groups. The old grandmother of Nazeer was not informed that he was missing since she is a heart patient.
The grandmother and aunt of one of the rescued youths, Avesh, a former student of MA High School, were relieved and said they would forbid him from going near the waterfront in future.