It was a tragic afternoon for the residents of Kudlu near Parappana Agrahara on the city’s outskirts when three children from the village drowned in a quarry there on Friday.
The dead are two girls and a boy. The rescue team recovered the girls’ bodies but had to abandon its search at the end of three hours due to rain and fading light. The search is expected to resume on Saturday.
The dead are Meghana (13), Aishwarya (13) and Lokesh (14), who had gone out to play.
Aishwarya’s sister, Sangvi (16), who witnessed the horror, wept: “I had come to the quarry to wash clothes while my younger sister and her friends followed me. They later started playing and ventured into the water in the pit. Lokesh suddenly slipped on one of the stones and starting screaming when he fell in. Aishwarya and Meghana reached out and tried to rescue him but they too fell in.”
Sangvi ran to summon local residents. Rescue personnel said the depth of water in the vast pit ranged from 5 to 30 feet. The team, comprising police and Fire Services personnel, recovered the two bodies.
Residents said it had been 10 years since any stone had been quarried here. They said the place had claimed several lives.
The Parappana Agrahara police have registered a case of negligence under section 304(a) of the IPC against the quarry owner, Srinivas.
