Mumbai girl falls into sea while clicking selfie, youth missing

Mumbai: A college girl who fell into the swirling Arabian Sea while clicking a selfie off a rocky beach here on Saturday and a youth who plunged into the water to save her were both untraced, police said. The Indian Coast Guard launched an aerial search to trace out the two missing people.

The 18-year-old girl, identified as Tarannum Ansari, and her two friends Anjum Khan (19) and Kasuri Khan (19) slipped while clicking a selfie with their mobile phones and fell into the swirling seawaters off the rocky beach of Bandra Bandstand.

On hearing their screams for help, local youth Rajesh Walunj jumped into the rising tidal waters and managed to rescue Anjum and Kasuri and later tried to save Tarannum.

However, along with Tarannum, Walunj went missing in the waters and they were not found till late Saturday evening, said BMC Disaster Control.

Police, fire brigade and the fishing folk from Worli were helping in the search operation in the sea waters near the Rajiv Gandhi Bandra Worli Sea Link.

An Indian Coast Guard helicopter started sorties near Bandra Bandstand, opposite the Hotel Taj Lands End in the evening even as the high tide hampered both visibility and rescue operations.

The three girl college students, hailing from Bainganwadi in the eastern suburb of Govandi and who study in different colleges, had come for a weekend picnic to Bandra Bandstand, a favourite with tourists, picnickers and couples, senior police inspector R Dhavle told media persons.

Dhavle suspects that Tarannum -- who was around 50 metres from the shore -- and Walunj may have been swept far away from the shore.