Hyderabad: A six-year-old boy named Tarun accidentally fell into the Musi river in the Shankarnagar area of Old Malakpet.
The boy, who had gone to the river along with his brother and sister to play, slipped into the water and was washed away. His brother who tried to help him also fell into the water, but escaped holding on to a plant.
Two teams from the emergency and fire department and the police are searching for the boy. Swimmers from the tourism department have been called to help in the search. A pedal boat from Hussainsagar was also pressed into service.
The boy is the son of Burrakallu Suresh, a daily wager. His wife Burrakallu Manga is an ayah at a hospital in Narayanaguda. She and her three children, Rajeshwari, Varun and Tarun stays near the Musi in the Shankarnagar area of Old Malakpet. On Sunday morning Manga left for work and the kids were at home. They went to the Musi river to play. Attracted by its froth Tarun entered the river to collect it.
“He slipped and was washed away. Due to Saturday’s heavy rain the current was strong. Two relatives of Tarun swam till the new bridge at Amberpet in vain to find the boy,” said SI T. Sai Kumar.
However, the parents complained that delay by officials led to the situation. “If the officials had responded quickly they could have found my child,” said Manga, the boy’s mother.
The GHMC has deployed nearly 50 staffers from the entomology department and the central emergency squad for the search. “We searched for the boy using the hook equipment. But we could not get any clues,” said inspector Irfan of the emergency squad.
“We are conducting the search on a war footing. We cannot use two boats due to space constraints. We will continue the search till night. We are not taking any chances. We have deployed teams near Nagole also. Expert divers from Nagarjuna-sagar are expected to join the search anytime,” said GHMC zonal commissioner Balasub-ramanyam.
