Qatar: Indian Expat, 2 children accidentally drown in Maroona Beach

Doha: A weekend fun outing turned tragic for three Indian nationals, including two children, as they drowned at the Mroona beach on Friday, October 8.

A report published in The Doha Globe, said the dead included a father, Balaji Balaguru (38), and his son Rakshan (10), while the third was a girl, Varshini Vaidyanathan (12), from another family.

All are from the state of Tamil Nadu – Balaji hails from Kumbhakonam in Thanjavur district and Varshini is from Chennai.

Balaji worked as a senior electrical engineer at KEO International Consultants in Doha. Varshini was studying at DPS Monarch International School in Grade 7 and Rakshan was a Grade 5 student of Birla Public School.

The incident occurred at the AL Maroona Beach situated on the northern tip of Qatar at 5 PM on Friday.

Both families were friends and had gone to the beach to enjoy the weekend holidays.

“The place where they had entered the sea was shallow but this tall wave came all of a sudden and they were drawn inside. The police and coast guard came immediately. Balaji and Varshini died at the spot and Rakshan died after three hours at Sidra Hospital. The doctors tried their best to resuscitate him,” Kumar Ranganathan, a relative of Balaji was quoted as saying to The Doha Globe.

The mortal remains would be flown back to India for last rites, community sources said.