Dhiraj Harmalkar
In a tragic incident, a car rammed into the guard railings of Zuari bridge past midnight (between 12.30 and 1 am) and plunged into the river below killing all four occupants.
Police said at the time of the accident, the car was moving at a very high speed from Cortalim towards Agassaim.
Though some people said the driver was drunk, the police stated this fact will be known only after the post-mortem on the body of the one who was at the wheel is conducted.
Police said Henry Araujo (46), was the person driving the vehicle. The names of the other three occupants were given as Presila D'Cruz (53), Olvin Araujo and Austin Fernandes (38). All are from Loutolim.
The car shattered the railings and fell straight into the river in the dead of the night, making any kind of rescue difficult.
On Thursday morning, at daybreak, the Navy divers' team and other rescue agencies started the coordinated search operation that went on for hours.
After a pain-staking search of more than 12 hours, the car was finally retrieved from the river bed in the afternoon at around 1 pm and all the bodies were recovered by 2 pm from inside the car.
According to the rescue agencies, all four occupants were found inside the vehicle. The last two dead bodies, which were stuck inside the car, were extricated after using hydraulic cutters to cut open a portion of the ill-fated car.