In a praiseworthy act, three women from Tamil Nadu’s Kottarai rescued two young men from drowning in the waters of the Kottarai dam in Perambalur district on August 6.

Seeing them drown, the women removed the sarees they were wearing and tossed them in the water. While two youths could be rescued, two others drowned.

A group of 12 youngsters from Siruvachchur village went to play cricket near Kottarai village on August 6. After playing, they went to the village to take a bath in the Kottarai dam.

As a result of heavy rains over the past week, the depth of the water in the dam was between 15 to 20 feet.

When the men arrived, the three women from Adanurai — Senthamizh Selvi (38), Muthamaal (34) and Ananthavalli (34) — had just finished bathing and washing their clothes.

‘We were about to go home when the group arrived. They looked around the dam and asked us about bathing here. We warned them that the water would be deep. But four of the youngsters somehow slipped and fell in,’ The New Indian Express quoted Senthamizh Selvi as saying.

‘We removed our sarees without thinking of anything and threw them into the water. We managed to save two boys but the other two drowned while we were trying to save them. We were inside the waters but still couldn’t reach them,’ she added.

While the two rescued youngsters were identified as Karthick and Senthilvelan, the deceased are Pavithran (17) and Ranjith (25), a trainee doctor.

The bodies of the deceased were recovered by Perambalur firefighters and sent to Perambalur district headquarters government hospital for autopsy.

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