GUWAHATI: Five of a nine-member group are missing after they reportedly ventured into the Brahmaputra River off Guwahati’s Kharghuli area on Wednesday afternoon.

According to locals, a group of nine people had visited Bhakti Kutir, a Krishna temple near the river, where the incident occurred. Around 12:50 pm, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) received a call reporting that four to five people were missing. “The caller said there were eight to nine people and four to five of them were missing. Immediately after getting the information, our team arrived with four boats to conduct a search and rescue operation,” an NDRF officer told the media at the site.

The officer added that three people managed to swim ashore while another was rescued by the NDRF team. “Five are missing,” he said, adding that a sudden shift in the water level was suspected to have caused the incident. Rescue teams recovered belongings of some of the missing persons from the riverbank. Most of those affected are from outside Assam.