'Silent river Beas turned into watery grave within seconds'

Another survivor, Ravi Kumar said: "The water level suddenly rose to five or six feet and the students who were close to the river were washed away."

He said no help came from the district administration for hours.

"If the administration had reacted immediately, 10 to 15 lives could have been saved," an emotional Kumar said.

According to him, there were no hoardings to warn the tourists not to go near the flowing water.

"Before going into the water, we asked the locals and they said you could go. When the disaster occurred, rather than helping us, they started shouting at us," Kumar added.

Aditya, who saved himself, said darkness hampered search operations.

"There was no provision of searchlights. The search operation started almost 12 hours after the incident."