Deniyaya: four missing after drowning while bathing in a stream

Four people who went to bathe in a stream in the Beverley area of Deniyaya have drowned and are missing, police said. The incident occurred while a group of seven who had come from the Nugegoda area were bathing in the stream.

Police said search operations to find the missing are being carried out intensively, and investigations into the incident are under way.

UPDATE: One of the victims was a 34-year-old software engineer, a University of Kelaniya graduate who had married only 17 days earlier, on October 21. A sudden spell of rain upstream is believed to have caused the surge of water that caught the group. Two survivors were rescued with injuries by local residents. The victim's name is being withheld.