His woman friend swims to safety at St Estevam

Panaji : A 22-year-old man from Gujarat  is feared to have drowned after the  hired car he was driving plunged into the river from the ferry ramp at St Estevam in the wee hours of Sunday, during a hot pursuit.

The other occupant of the car, a young woman who is a student of a management college in Sankhali, managed to swim to the bank.

While the car was fished out from the river  with the help of fire and emergency services officials and Indian Navy on Sunday afternoon, the search operation to trace the youth is still on.

The Old Goa police said  the incident occurred at about 1.25 am on Sunday when Bashudev Bhandari and his woman friend were travelling from Sankhali to Panaji in the rent-a-cab car.

The police said that prior to the incident, the hired four-wheeler  met with an accident with a sedan car at Marcel around  1.05 am. But they did not stop and con tinued travelling towards Panaji. The occupants of the sedan car chased the couple closely for  not stopping despite the  accident. Later, the rented car plunged into the river from the ferry ramp and sank.

The police said  the woman  managed to come out of the car and swam to the riverbank. However,  the man, who had also exited the vehicle, is feared to have drowned.

Police and  fire personnel  and Indian Navy divers made efforts to trace the man.

The  Old Goa police  registered a case of ‘other accident’ of the incident and a missing case over the untraced man, upon the report of his friend.

Also, the Mardol police have been asked to conduct an inquiry into the matter pertaining to the accident at Marcel. and the consequent chase.

The Old Goa police said the search operation has not been stopped entirely, and that it would be conducted with the help of the coastal police.

A full-fledged search operation would be conducted on Monday morning.