Puri: In an unfortunate incident at the ‘Blue Flag’ beach, a tourist was reportedly swept away while taking a bath in the sea here on Tuesday morning.
The tourist has been identified as one Ganesh Binay from Jharkhand, who is a +2 student.
The Odisha Fire Service department personnel have launched a search and rescue operation to trace the victim.
According to sources, Ganesh was swept away by strong currents while he was bathing in the designated bathing zone of the beach—the area earmarked between Digabarini Khunti and Chaitan Chhak.
The incident comes a few weeks after the iconic beach was accorded the prestigious ‘Blue Flag Beach’ tag by Copenhagen-based Foundation for Environmental Education, based on 33 parameters.
According to experts, safe bathing is one of the parameters for the honour and the incident has now put a question mark over the safety standards at the Golden beach.
“Generally the bathing zone is specified with ropes and iron fencing and more than 100 life guards used to keep strict vigil over the tourists. There was also not so much tide in the sea. We wonder why such an accident happened, which has almost become rare since the last one year,” said a local resident.
