Tamil Nadu

Three drown as coracle capsizes

PUDUKOTTAI: Three women agricultural labourers drowned when a coracle in which they were crossing a rivulet in Kaarakottai near Kattumavadi capsized on Thursday.

In all, 27 agricultural labourers, most of them from Tiruthuraipoondi and surrounding villages in adjoining Thanjavur district, were returning home after transplanting paddy saplings. Fishermen from the vicinity rescued 24 persons. The police identified the dead as S. Vaidehi (22) of Pandi village near Tiruthuraipoondi; M. Dhania (40) of Tiruthuraipoondi and A. Selvamani (32) of Poyiundarkottai near Orathanadu.

Official sources said that the women labourers were going by the coracle, as bus services from Kattumavadi had been suspended following breaches of road at Kaarakottai.

The Manamelkudi police have two persons who operated the coracle.

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