ಲಿಫ್ಟ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿ ಹಾಕಿಕೊಂಡ ವೈದ್ಯಕೀಯ ಸಚಿವರು

Five boys drown in Tavarekere lake

Death came by drowning to five school-going boys from Tavarakere on the outskirts of Bangalore here on Thursday evening, though it remains unclear whether they were out swimming in the very lake in which they met a watery end.

The tragic incident comes a week after four Bangalore youths, including a teenage girl, drowned in a Bidadi lake where they had gone to take a dip after visiting a nearby shrine. On January 28, two youths had drowned in the Hebbal lake. On March 2, four teenagers including a girl had drowned in the Nelligudde lake near Bidadi, on the outskirts of the City. In Thursday’s incident, the boys who died have been identified as I V Somashekhar, Ajith Kumar, Suhel Khan, Vishwaraj and Praveen Kumar. All aged 9 and from Class IV of a government primary school in Tavarakere, the boys’ parents are daily wage labourers. The Tavarakere police suspect the five school children did not know swimming and were perhaps playing in the water when they unmindfully went to a deeper part of the lake whose bed has many deep pits. Failing to negotiate the swirling water, they drowned. According to police sources, the five boys went to Gangammanakere after school on Thursday evening. After reaching the lake, barring Praveen, the rest took off their school uniforms and then waded into the water at the shallow end.

Frantic search
When some local residents found the uniforms by the bank, they frantically looked for the boys, but to no avail. Sensing that the boys might have drowned in the lake, the desperate residents made emergency calls to the police who reached the spot along with Fire and Emergency Service personnel and subsequently sought the assistance of a rescue team from the Fire Force staff at Mayo Hall here. A police officer suspected that except for Praveen, the other four boys left behind their school uniforms on the lake bank and entered the water.

Rescue effort
“It could be that when Praveen saw them flailing their limbs in the water and shouting for help, that he jumped into the water in an effort to rescue them,” the officer said, adding that the recovery of four sets of uniforms suggested that is what might have happened. “Only Praveen had his uniform on,” he said. According to the officer, the boys may not have attended school since their school bags were not found by the lake.

Bangalore : Five Boys Drown in Tavarekere Lake

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೨೭ ಮಂದಿ ಜಲ ಸಮಾಧಿ - ಪ್ರಜಾವಾಣಿ ದಿನಾಂಕ ೧೫-೧೨-೨೦೧೦

 

 

 

27 drown as van falls into tank in Mysore

Twenty-seven people, most of them women, drowned when a van in which they were travelling fell into Undabatti tank near Kadakola on the Mysore-Nanjangud Road on Tuesday. The vehicle carried more than 30 passengers. The dead included 23 women and three children.
The victims were from Aralakuppe, Katteri and Shyadanahalli villages in the Pandavapura taluk of Mandya district. They were returning after a wedding feast (Beegara oota) hosted by the bridegroom’s parents in Nanjangud town, when the accident occurred around 4 pm. The marriage of Pallavi Pooja with Lokesh took place near Krishna Raja Sagar Dam on Sunday. According to eyewitnesses, the vehicle fell into the tank after the driver reportedly lost control of the wheel. The driver and cleaner are said to have escaped from the scene, soon after the vehicle sank into the tank. Both are suspected to be under the influence of alcohol. As soon as the accident occurred, local people swung into action. They jumped into the tank and brought the bodies on to the shore. They saved four to five persons who were crying for help after being thrown out of the vehicle and helped the injured to be shifted to K R Hospital in Mysore. The deceased were identified as Brinda, Veena, Jayamma, Ratnamma, Lakshmi, Vinodamma, Geeta, Rani, Premamma, Premamma, Manasa (11months), Prashanth, Sanna Devamma, Ponnamma, Sumathi, Prema, Bhagya, Mahadevamma, Devamma, Prashanth. Chintu aka Prashanth had celebrated his birthday on Monday. The dead include the bride’s mother Prema (40), aunt Lakshmi (28) and grandmother Sannamadamma (65). The survivors included Veena, Bharati (both in their mid-thirties), along with Bettamma and Jayamma (both above 70 years).

Rescue operation

On receiving information, the city and district police rushed to the spot and launched rescue operations. Personnel from the Department of Fire Force used rubber dinghies in the operation. The bodies were shifted to KR Hospital in ambulances. The ill-fated van was lifted from the tank with the help of two cranes belonging to KSRTC around 8:30 pm. Three vehicles were arranged by the marriage party to attend the “beegara oota” in Nanjangud. In the first vehicle, the newly wed bride, groom and others were travelling. It was followed by the ill-fated van. In another vehicle, 17 were travelling. The police diverted traffic on the highway as it was hampering rescue operations. Meanwhile, hundreds of onlookers gathered at the spot, which hit the operations. Later, the police dispersed the crowd.