Minor boys aged 13 and 17 drown in pond in Odisha’s Bhadrak

Two minor boys, Rajendra Behera (17) and Jyotirmaya Behera (13), drowned in a pond while playing in Radhaballavpur village, Bhadrak. Locals and fire officials retrieved their bodies but they were declared dead at the hospital.

Minor boys aged 13 and 17 drown in pond in Odisha’s Bhadrak

Representational image

time

The bodies of two minors, aged 13 and 17 years old, were recovered from a pond after they drowned while they were playing with their friends near the water body in Radhaballavpur village under Basudevpur Municipality of Bhadrak district on Sunday.

According to reports, Rajendra Behera (17) and Jyotirmaya Behera (13) were playing when their legs slipped and they fell into the pond and subsequently drowned. Hearing their wails, nearby locals jumped to their rescue and managed to pull one of them out of the water.

A frantic search was on to locate another of them but in vain. A few minutes later fire department officials reached the scene and retrieved the body. Following this, both were rushed to the hospital, where doctors declared them dead on arrival.

“I was passing by a road when I heard some local women crying and came to know that two kids had drowned in the village pond. Several locals searched the entire pond to rescue them but sadly they could not be saved,” said a local man.

ALSO READ: Minor boy critically injured in shooting in Odisha's Angul

While the incident cast a pall of gloom on the village, police or concerned officials have not released any statement on the matter so far.

The tragic news comes less than two weeks after two 15-year-olds drowned in the Kuakhai river under Balianta police limits in Bhubaneswar. The two were part of a group of kids who had gone to the river banks for the Saraswati Puja idol immersion ceremony of their tutorial.

ALSO READ: Scolded by mother for ‘excessive’ phone usage, Class 6 boy hangs himself in Odisha

Following that incident, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased students.

Next story