Mumbai, Dec 12 : Five college students, including three girls, drowned Saturday afternoon off the Arnala Beach in Maharashtra's Thane district, around 75 km northwest of here, police said.

According to an official of the Virar police station, they were part of an eight-member group of picnickers from Antop Hill and Sion areas of central Mumbai.

"The college students, all aged 19, had come here for a picnic this (Saturday) morning and had gone for a swim post-lunch. They may have ventured too far out in the waters and five of them drowned," said investigating officer Anil Sandbhor.

Police, with the help of the local fishermen, managed to recover the bodies of all the victims by Saturday evening.

The victims have been identified as Swati, Shweta, Dipika, Ashwin and Dorai.

While Swati and Dipika were from Kirti College, Dadar, Shweta was studying in SNDT College at Churchgate. Ashwin and Dorai were students of Aryan College, Bandra, according to Sandbhor.

It is not known if the victims were in an inebriated state when they entered the sea, Sandbhor added.

With this, the number of deaths on the picturesque but deadly Arnala Beach has crossed 100 in the past three years, he added. (IANS)