2 die, 4 missing in Saint Martin’s Island

Two students of the Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST) have drowned and four others are missing after they went swimming off the coast of Saint Martin’s Island in Teknaf, police say.

Locals rescued five drowning students and rushed them to Teknaf Upazila Hospital, but two of them - Montizul Islam Evan and Saddam Hossain - died.

Three others - 'Faisal', 'Farhan' and 'Asif' - have been shifted to the Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital as their condition deteriorated.

Four students - Sabbir Hassan, Shahriar Rahman, Udoy Mahmud and Golam Rahim Bappy - are missing, police and coastguards say.

Thirty-four students from the university’s computer science department came to the island and checked into local ‘Senjun Hotel’.

It was not immediately clear whether they went there on an excursion or for holiday.

Cox’s Bazar and the picturesque Saint Martin’s Island are popular tourist destinations. Hundreds thronged the two locations to celebrate ‘Pahela Baishakh’ - the first day of Bangla New Year.

Teknaf police OC Ranjit Kumar Barua said all the students had gone to the sea during low tide.

“Locals and coastguards rescued five of them,” said Lt Shahid Al Ahsan, coastguard’s Saint Martin’s Island station.

Four of them are still missing.

Navy has joined the search and rescue operations, coastguards say.

“We have continued our search after evening. A team of navy divers and coastguards are scouring the sea,” said Ahsan.