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Five members of a group of 11 women, who went for a picnic, drowned in the Gollapalli Reservoir in Penukonda mandal of Sri Sathya Sai district on Friday.

The deceased, from three families, were identified as A. Pushpalatha (29), Gayathramma (50), Ashwini (23), Shaik Haseena (40) and Shaik Maahin (17), all residents of Dargah Peta in Penukonda town.

According to the police, the women went to the reservoir to spend some jolly time in two auto-rickshaws on Friday morning. After lunch, the five women entered the waters to play and, unaware of the depth of the reservoir, went deep and got trapped in the mud. As one of them started to drown, the others made an attempt to save her, and in the process all of them drowned.

Local fishermen retrieved the bodies from the reservoir.

A case has been registered.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy CM K. Pawan Kalyan and former CM Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed shock over the incident and condoled the death of the five women.