30 April,2017 03:30 PM IST | Mumbai | Suraj Ojha
Two commandos from the Thane police's Quick Response Team showed just how quickly they can react in a crisis when they had to rescue two kids who were drowning in a pond in Airoli forest
Two boys went in too deep in a pond in Airoli forest and began to drown. When the commandos heard their cries for help, they jumped in and rescued them. The entire rescue effort lasted less than 10 minutes
Two commandos from the Thane police's Quick Response Team (QRT) showed just how quickly they can react in a crisis when they had to rescue two kids who were drowning in a pond in Airoli forest on Friday afternoon.
A group of 5 to 6 boys - aged between 8 and 10 years - were playing in the water to beat the summer heat, when two of them went in too deep and began to drown. It was a stroke of luck that the commandos were present at the spot - they were participating in a Thane QRT commando camp organised at Airoli Forest, and had gone near the
pond to enjoy their lunch break.
One of the commandos, Shankar Shinde, told mid-day, "We were there for a one-day general tactics camp on a hill near the pond. At 2 pm, we went to the pond to freshen up before lunch, when we saw some boys swimming there. We warned them not to go too deep into the water, but they said they were locals and were familiar with the lake."
Most of the commandos had already finished lunch and gone back to the camp for tests, but Shinde and his colleague Umesh Munde were enjoying an extended lunch break when they heard cries for help.
"We heard a child's voice shouting 'Uncle, please save our friend'. We immediately removed our clothes and jumped into the water," recalled Shinde. Commando Munde told mid-day, "When we were just starting out, we were trained to save people in a floods, and we used that training and managed to save the boys in less than 10 minutes."
