Three people died in separate drowning incidents in Surkhet district on Saturday, police said.

In the first incident, two teenage girls drowned while swimming in Tuni Khola in Birendranagar Municipality-10.

The deceased have been identified as 14-year-old Samjhana Thapa, daughter of Deepak Thapa, and 13-year-old Kalpana Rawat, daughter of Man Bahadur Rawat, both residents of Pathan Tole in Birendranagar.

They drowned while swimming in the river on Saturday evening.

Following the incident, a team from the Sub-Police Post Subbakuna, led by Assistant Sub-Inspector Anil Kumar Shahi, rescued them and rushed them to Karnali Province Hospital in Surkhet, where doctors declared them dead, police said.

In a separate incident on Saturday afternoon, 18-year-old Ramesh Pun Magar went missing while swimming in Dhatatal at Panchapuri Municipality-8 in Surkhet.

He was a native of Gurans Rural Municipality in Dailekh and had been living in Birendranagar Municipality.

A security team deployed for search and rescue operations later recovered his body, according to District Police Office Surkhet spokesperson Deputy Superintendent of Police Kavindra Singh Bohora.