New Delhi:

Five members of a family, including a woman and a teenage girl holidaying in Lonavala near Mumbai, were swept away at a waterfall near the backwaters of the Bhusi Dam this afternoon.

The incident happened around 1:30 pm and the police, with help from locals, promptly launched a search and rescue op.

Rescuers, armed with ropes and trekking gear, are looking for the bodies of the victims.

According to the police, the five tourists slipped into a waterfall and drowned in the reservoir downstream, news agency PTI reported. Locals said they may have slipped on the mossy boulders at the base of the falls and got swept away by the force of the water, reported news agency IANS.

More details are awaited.