A man drowned while saving two students near a checkdam in Kanniyakumari district. Peter Johnson was in a bathing ghat in Kuzhithurai checkdam in Vilavancode taluk around 11.30 a.m. on June 1 when he noticed the two boys, Mano and Akilesh, slipping into the water. He helped save their lives but drowned.

Terming his death an irreparable loss, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin announced a solatium of Rs. 10 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund. AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami condoled the death and hailed the heroic act. “Though Peter has died, he would continue to live in the two students he saved,” the AIADMK leader said.