In a painful discovery that has caught the attention of experienced rescuers, a paramilitary diving team has found the body of a woman who was on board the ill-fated tourist boat that capsized in the Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh, still holding her child in a final, tight embrace.
The Agra diving team described difficult conditions inside the submerged ship, where limited space and rough iron bars forced rescuers to use hammers to create narrow openings, and one divers was nearly trapped.
As many as nine people died and 22 others were rescued after a tourist boat capsized and sank in the Bargi dam in Jabalpur district following a sudden storm on Thursday evening, officials said.
“We initially had difficulty recovering the body of a woman from the wreckage. We then discovered that she was holding her baby tightly, and it was difficult to separate them. Our team was deeply affected by the scene,” one of the divers told PTI Videos.
He said conditions were extremely difficult, with limited space, broken structures and low visibility hampering the rescue operation.
Another member of the rescue team from Agra said visibility inside was very poor, and the team kept encountering broken structures and iron bars that disrupted their equipment.
In some places, the team had to squeeze through narrow openings to conduct the search, he said, adding that at one point, a diver was trapped and had to be rescued.
According to rescuers, the operation has become dangerous, as the boat’s hull has completely collapsed on both sides, with internal grates making the passages dangerously narrow.
Despite these obstacles, the paramilitary team has so far recovered five bodies from the reservoir’s murky depths, including a child and four adults.
