Panaji

Two tourists from Tamil Nadu drowned in separate incidents while clicking selfies near beaches in Goa, the police said today.

According to Police Inspector Jivba Dalvi, Dinesh Kumar Ranganathan, 28, from Vellore in Tamil Nadu drowned when he was clicking selfies along with two other tourists near a rocky stretch located adjoining a creek, which empties into the sea at Baga beach.

“Two of them managed to come out after a heavy wave pulled all of them into the sea. However, the third, Dinesh, drowned. The dead body was fished out later,” the official said, adding that the incident occurred late on Sunday.

In a similar incident, four tourists from Tamil Nadu went to enjoy at a rocky patch in the waters at Siquerim beach near Fort Aguada yesterday morning, Dalvi said. As they were clicking pictures on their phones while sitting on rocks, one of them got swept away in the strong sea waves and drowned, he said. The deceased was identified as Sasikumar Vasan (33).

After the police conducted the inquest procedure in both the cases, the bodies were shifted to the Goa Medical College and Hospital for postmortem, Dalvi added.

The Goa government had last month issued an advisory asking tourists to refrain from swimming in sea waters along beaches for four months starting from June 1. The state government shuts down beaches for swimming and other water sports activities during the monsoon from June to August each year as a precautionary step.