A birthday celebration ended on a tragic note for seven friends after three of them drowned in Thippaganahalli Lake on Bengaluru-Gauribidanur Road on Monday.
Six friends, including four women, gathered in Ramamurthy Nagar on Monday to celebrate the 24th birthday of Naveen Kumar. Then all the seven of them decided to go to Ghati Subramanya Temple near Doddaballapur on the outskirts of the city. They later drove to Tippaganahalli Lake.
After having lunch, they ventured into the lake. Chandrashekar alias Chandru (20) suddenly slipped and started drowning. Naveen and Raju rushed to his rescue but all of them drowned, an investigating officer said.
Naveen's friends called the police who alerted rescuers from the Fire and Emergency Services Department. Rescue workers searched for the bodies until late Monday night but had to stop the operation as it got dark. The rescue operation resumed on Tuesday morning and the bodies were recovered.
The post-mortem was conducted at the government hospital in Doddaballapura and the bodies were handed over to their families, police said.
A case of unnatural deaths has been registered at the Doddaballapur rural police station.