Three engineering students of a private college drowned in the Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh’s Eluru district on Friday, officials said. From the group of seven, two students are still missing, while two others managed to get to safety.

“The currents were high when they went for a swim. They got washed away,” a police officer said

The students, from a private university based in Amaravati, entered the river thinking it was shallow, said a senior officer, adding, “They had no idea that it was deep. Of the two who escaped, one knew swimming. We are not sure whether the others knew how to swim.”

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has called for a thorough search and rescue operation to locate the missing students. Naidu’s son and Education Minister Nara Lokesh said in a social media post that the search was on for the missing students. “The state stands firmly with the families,” Lokesh wrote in a post on X.

Police have registered a case of unnatural death under Section 194 of the BNSS.

The students had entered the river for a photoshoot as part of Ugadi celebrations, another officer said. The students arrived in Bhadraachalam on Thursday and offered prayers at Sri Seetha Ramachandra Swamy Devasthanam for Ugadi celebrations. On Friday, they walked to the Kollugudem sand ramp and opted out of spending their time there because they wanted to be close to a point where the river had high waters.

The students took photos before they ventured out into the water, police said. One of them stayed back on the shore, and the others walked into the water. “There was only one who swam back to safety. The other student who stayed back survived, too,” an officer said.