Three boys drowned in a small pond near Sulur in Coimbatore district on Thursday. The tragedy occurred when the trio ventured into the pond to take bath.
The police have identified the deceased as A. Sathishkumar (14), S. Sabarivasan (12) and A. Boopathi (14), all residents of Muthalipalayam.
According to the police, Sathishkumar studied up to seventh standard and Sabarivasan and Boopathi were students of class VI and VIII of Government School, Arasur.
The police said that the boys went to the pond in the locality named ‘Kinathukattu kuttai’ around 10 a.m. The water level in the pond had increased after the recent rains.
After the family members informed the police that the boys were missing, a search was launched in the evening and they were found dead around 5 p.m.
Sulur inspector R. Mathaiyan said that the boys did not know swimming and drowned while playing in the water.
The bodies were taken out from the pond and shifted to a government hospital for post-mortem.
In a separate incident, an eight-year-old boy from Kurumbapalayam near Sulur drowned in a small pond on Thursday.
The police said that A. Hariharan, a resident of Mariamman Koil Street at Kurumbapalayam, drowned in a pond close to his residence.
The police said that the boy went to attend nature's call in an open area near his house around 11.30 a.m.
The boy, a class II student of the Government Middle School at Muthalipalayam, later ventured into a small pond in the area to wash his legs. Parents of the boy searched for him as he did not return home and they found him unconscious lying in the pond. Though the boy was rushed to a private hospital at Neelambur, doctors declared him brought dead.