Six school students drown in Manair in Telangana
The bodies were shifted to the government hospital in Sircilla for post-mortem
SIRCILLA: In a heartrending incident, six schoolchildren drowned in the Manair river in Rajanna Sircilla district on Monday afternoon. Bodies of five children were fished out during the rescue operations and the search for one more is still continuing.
According to locals, nine students, all residents of Amba Bhavani Colony and Rajiv Nagar in Sircilla town studying in eight and ninth classes in Kusuma Ramaiah Zilla Parishad Government High School, went for swimming at the check-dam of Manair river situated in Nehru Nagar on Monday afternoon. While six students jumped into the river to enjoy swimming, three others refused to join them.
The six victims who were identified as Kolipaka Ganesh, Konga Rajesh, Singam Manoj, Jadala Venkata Sai, Theegala Ajay and Sriramula Kranthi, unaware of the depth of water, entered into the water and drowned one after the other. The three students who did not resort to swim - Kota Aravind, Diddi Akhil and Vasala Kalyana - stayed at the shore.
After seeing their friends drowning, the three ran to their houses and informed their parents, who in turn, informed the local police officials.
The police officials with the help of expert swimmers started immediate rescue operations. But, as it was raining heavily in the evening and was dark, the rescue team was able to find only the body of Kolipaka Ganesh (14) and stopped the rescue operations on Monday.
After continuing the rescue operations on Tuesday morning from 4 am they found four more bodies of Rakesh, Manoj, Venkat Sai and Ajay. The body of Sriramula Kranthi is yet to be traced.
Meanwhile, Sircilla MLA and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao expressed sorrow through his Twitter account and issued orders to superintendent of police Rahul Hegde to carry out rescue operations by directing concerned officials. Rahul Hegde, zilla parishad chairperson N. Aruna and municipal chairperson Jindam Kala visited the spot and inspected the rescue operations.
The bodies were shifted to the government hospital in Sircilla for post-mortem.