Mumbai: Team of 20 takes 21 hours to fish out body of teenager

An outing to Marve beach turned into a prolonged nightmare for the family of Ejaz Jalal Ahmed who had to stand by helplessly and watch the 16yearold get sucked in and drown in the creek on Sunday evening and then spend nearly 21 anxious hours waiting for a team of 20 fire and floodandrescue officials and Navy divers to fish out the teenagerrsquos bodyAlso read 18yearold boy goes missing from Malad While activists blame the authorities for not stationing lifeguards at the beach despite numerous cases of drowning being reported there fire officials said people ignore warnings and go very close to the water at the beach which is extremely dangerous because of the strong currents and the sinking sandYoung life snuffed out The team comes back to the beach with the 16yearoldrsquos body as his bereaved relatives below look on Picsnimesh DaveThe incident took place on Sunday evening when Ahmedrsquos family from Pathanwadi Malad East had gone to Marve beach for an outing The teenager and his brother were trying to fish at the beach and stepped into the water without paying heed to the shifting sandldquoHe took two steps inside the water and as soon as he lifted his foot to take the third one the current pulled him in Several boats which ferry people between Marve and Manori were passing by and their movement intensified the swiftness of the current He disappeared within moments right in front of our eyesrdquo said Ahmedrsquos father JalalluddinThe family members said that the current was too strong for anybody except a trained swimmer to be able to swim against and come ashore They immediately contacted their relatives who informed the fire brigade hoping to save the boy in time but their efforts proved futileLate responseAbraham Pinto a local social worker who has been helping the police and fire brigade officials in drowning cases and was involved in Ahmedrsquos case as well said fire officials came late and unpreparedldquoWhile the boy was sucked in around 530 pm the fire brigade reached the spot only two hours later They didnrsquot have torches or enough manpower and we helped them with both The floodandrescue team arrived only on Monday morning We have written to the BMC time and again to station lifeguards at Marve beach but even after a former municipal commissioner assured us no lifeguards have been postedrdquo said PintoBig operationFire brigade officials on the other hand said that they did everything they could to find the boy Officials confirmed that two teams of fire officials from the Malad and Borivli fire stations rushed to the spot along with one team from the floodandrescue department which is also a part of the fire brigade The fire brigade teams and two Navy divers looked for the boy throughout the night and were joined by the floodandrescue team in the morningTwenty men in all looked for the boyrsquos body yesterday A senior fire official said change in current high tide and rains delayed the rescue operationldquoIn cases of drowning at such dangerous beaches it takes a minimum of 24 hours to find and fish out a body We got help from the Navy which sent two divers to find the boy but visibility in the Marve creek was low Even on Monday the rains continued to hamper the operation but we finally recovered the body around 230 pmrdquo said Ravindra Ambulgekar Assistant Divisional Fire Officer Borivli fire stationHe added that local residents and visitors to the beach have been told time and again not to venture into the water as doing so can be very dangerous but to no availAhmedrsquos body was then handed over to the Malwani police who took him to Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivli where the boy was pronounced dead on arrival He was then taken to Bhagwati PostMortem Centre for an autopsy The doctors confirmed that the boy died due to drowning