Chennai:

Five visiting medical students, including two women, drowned in sea off Kanniyakumari coast in Tamil Nadu on Monday.

The students, in the final weeks of their course, were out swimming at a private beach that remained shut.

“The group had accessed the closed Lemur Beach through a coconut grove. It was closed as the sea was rough. We are investigating,” Kanniyakumari District Superintendent of Police E Sundaravathanam told NDTV.

Investigators say the group, as part of a larger group from SRM Medical College in Tiruchirappalli, had come for a wedding in Kanniyakumari on Sunday. They split themselves into smaller groups and took to exploring the tourist town and this particular group had come to the private beach.

The dead have been identified as Charukavi from Thanjavur, Gayathiri from Neyveli, Sarvadarshith from Kanniyakumari, Praveen Sam from Dindigul and Venkatesh from Andhra Pradesh.

Three other women interns – Neshi from Karur, Preethi Priyanka from Theni and Saranya from Madurai – have been rescued and are being treated at the Asaripallam Medical College Hospital.

On Sunday, three others from Chennai had drowned while they took a dip at another beach.