CHENNAI: Three college students who went swimming in a water filled stone quarry feared drowned in the water in Keerapakkam on Wednesday.

Police said Deepak Sarathy (20) of Udumalaipet, Mohamed Ismail (19) of Mannarkudi and Vijay Sarathy (19) of Dharmapuri were second year engineering students in a private college in Potheri.

On Wednesday following the holiday, the group of five friends went swimming in the private stone quarry in Keerapakkam in the evening.

Police said the stone quarry was closed for the past 10 years but the students jumped the gate and went inside to swim in a culvert which is more than 200 feet deep.

Around 6 pm while they were swimming Deepak, Ismail and Vijay drowned in the water and two other friends Surya and Abdul tried to rescue the three friends but all their efforts went in vain.

Soon they alerted the local villagers but even the villagers could not rescue the students since it was too deep.

Later on getting information the Kayar police and TNFRS rescue team from Maraimalai Nagar visited the spot and a search operation is on.