Chennai, Aug 16 (IANS): The bodies of three youngsters who went for a bath in sea at Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu washed ashore on Wednesday morning.

The boys had gone to the sea for a bath on Tuesday, Independence Day.

The local people had on Tuesday evening found clothes on the beach between Uvari and Navvaladi near Thisaiyanvilai in Tirunelveli and they alerted the Uvari police that some people were missing in the sea.

Uvari police on inquiry found that three boys, Akash 14 , a class 10 student, Rahul, 13 a class 9 student and Mukesh, 12 a class 8 student had gone bathing in the sea at 3 p.m.

The Uvari police, Coastal Security group of Koodnkulam and fire and rescue services personnel commenced the searched and it continued till midnight.

Tamil Nadu assembly Speaker, M. Appavu who also hails from the district reached the beach and was present during the search operations. However there were no traces of the boys.

During the morning hours of Wednesday, the bodies of Akash and Rahul were washed ashore at Kodavilai near Navvaladi. The body of Mukesh washed ashore by 6.30 a.m..

The bodies of all three boys were sent to post-mortem at Tirunelveli Government Medical College for postmortem.