A 14-year-old girl’s desperate attempt to rescue her cow, trapped in slush in a lake, killed her and two others who tried to save her.
The accident took place in Kaarai village, in the outskirts of the temple town of Kancheepuram on Sunday afternoon.
Baby Shalini was minding her family’s cattle when she noticed one of the cows straying and walking into a lake. Soon, the animal got stuck in thick layers of slush in the lake and the teenager went after it to try and rescue it.
But Baby Shalini too got trapped in the slush. Hearing her cries for help, two other girls — Dhanalakshmi (14) and Ajitha (12) — rushed to the lake and tried to save Baby Shalini and the cow. But all three girls drowned.
Later in the afternoon, when the trapped cow and the rest of the herd returned home to Aandi Siruvallur village without Baby Shalini and the other girls, the villagers became anxious. They rushed to Kaarai village and found the bodies floating on the surface of the lake.
The villages recovered the bodies before firemen or the police could reach the spot. They were taken to the government district headquarters hospital for post-mortem.
A case was registered at the Kancheepuram taluk police station. According to the police, though the lake was shallow, the girls got stuck in it as their legs were trapped in the thick slush at the bottom of the waterbody.
Baby Shalini was a class IX student at the government higher secondary school in Kancheepuram town, while Dhanalakshmi and Ajitha studied in classes IX and VII respectively at the government high school in Aandi Siruvallur.
