13 students on school picnic drown in India

Thirteen college students on a school picnic have drowned while swimming in the sea in western India.

Senior police official Raja Pawar said the 10 female and three male students were swept away after they went into the water in Murud, a beach town about 95 miles south of Mumbai.

About 115 students and 11 teachers from a college in the town of Pune had gone to Murud for a picnic.

Coastguard officers and police using speedboats launched a search in the sea.

The Murud beach has a dangerous undertow.

The students were warned by local residents not to go far out in the sea but ignored the warnings, according to police.

At least 13 college students drown after swimming off a beach in western #India https://t.co/uMluuzQ2XS (AFP pic) pic.twitter.com/zOxSAZKY0o

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) February 1, 2016