The bodies of Sukhwinder Singh (19), and brothers Swinder Singh alias Sony (21) and Avtar Singh alias Tony (17), were fished out of the Lake by the police and taken to the Sector 16 General Hospital, where the doctors declared them brought dead, a senior police official said.

The three, accompanied by their friends Harbans Singh and Jaswinder Singh, had gone to the Mansa Devi Temple this morning. On their way back, the group decided to walk down to the regulator end of the Lake, the two survivors told the police.

Harbans Singh narrated the incident to Newsline: "When we reached the regulator end, we sat there and clicked photographs. Sony, Tony and Sukhwinder took off their clothes and went into the water. Though none of them knew how to swim, they started playing in the water and going deeper. Suddenly, Tony began drowning and Sukhwinder went to save him and caught his hand. Both began to drown. Sony too tried to help but got caught in the deep. Jaswinder and I also took off our clothes and entered the water. But we were scared so we began shouting for help." He added that Jaswinder stopped a cyclist going on the road and together they went to the nearby police post. Family sources said that while Sukhwinder was training to be a car electrician, Swinder worked as a glass fitter and small-time trader. The youngest of the deceased, Avtar Singh, had just taken his matriculation examination. The families have appealed to the administration not to press for a post-mortem.