Bodies of four students from a city-based engineering college, who were washed away along with their classmates in Beas River in Himachal Pradesh, were brought here by a special Army aircraft.

The 24 students of the VNR Vijyana Jyothi Institute of Engineering here, a part of the 48-member group on tour, who survived the tragedy were also flown in another special flight and landed at Shamshabad International airport last night.

Bodies of A Vijetha, Lakshmi Gayathri, G Aishwarya and B Rambabu arrived in a special flight at Begumpet airport last night. Both governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana issued press releases on the flight arrangements made. According to a press release issued by the Andhra Pradesh government, the students who survived the mishap and bodies of their classmates were brought back by a special aircraft arranged by Government of AP from Kullu-Chandigarh- Delhi-Hyderabad. Four of the bodies were brought to Begumpet airport last night, the release said.

The special flights for the students who were stranded and underwent a harrowing experience were organised by state minister P Narayana, Union Civil Aviation Minister Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Commissioner of Relief J C Sharma on behalf of the government, the AP press release said. A joint control room for both the governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is set up in Hyderabad to keep in touch with officials at Delhi and Himachal Pradesh on the progress of the operations, the release added.

The Telangana government, in a separate press release, said they have already given requisition to the Defence Ministry for helicopter and aircraft for Chandigarh and thereafter to the mishap spot in Kullu to bring the bodies back to Delhi and thereafter to Hyderabad. Telangana DGP Anurag Sharma said the 48 students had gone on the study tour and 24 of them washed away in river Beas near Thalot on Manali-Kiratpur Highway, 40 kms from Mandi. The postmortem of four bodies, three girls and a boy, was also conducted, he said.