Kanakapura: Five students including three girls, who had come on a picnic to Sangama near Mekedatu in the taluk from Bengaluru, met their watery graves yesterday.

The five students were playing in Cauvery River at Sangama, when they were caught in the whirlpool and drowned.

The deceased students have been identified as Varsha (20), a student of KLE College at Rajajinagar, Abhishek (20), a native of Bihar and a Computer Science student at Malleshwarm Government College, Arpitha (20), a native of Mandya district, who was pursuing her second year engineering course at RR College in Chikkabanavara, Tejas (21), a native of Chitradurga, who was pursuing his second year BCA course at Vijayanagar Government College and Neha (19), a student of a College at RR Nagar.

The deceased students were among 12 other students, who had come on a picnic in a Tempo Traveller (TT) vehicle. All the 12 students were playing in Cauvery River at Sangama when five of them were caught in the whirlpool and drowned, it is learnt.

Sathanur Police and Fire and Emergency Services personnel, who rushed to the spot, fished out the bodies from the River and shifted them to Taluk Hospital for post-mortem.

Meanwhile, public have expressed lack of preventive steps by the Forest Department and Environment Development Committee members were leading to such tragedies.

The public have urged the authorities concerned to take steps to install warning boards and penalise those who violate the instructions, which could save innocent lives.