BALASORE/ANGUL: Two persons including a minor girl drowned while floating miniature boats on the occasion of Kartika Purnima in Bhadrak and Angul districts on Monday.
In Bhadrak, 13-year-old girl Jhansi Rani Mahallick of Padhuan village in Basudevpur drowned while floating toy boat in the local pond. Sources said the girl and her mother had gone to the village pond in the morning. As she was releasing the boat in water, she accidentally slipped and drowned.
When some women present at the spot raised an alarm, villagers jumped into the pond and rescued Jhansi. The girl was rushed to Anantapur community health centre (CHC) and later shifted to Soro CHC in nearby Balasore district after her condition deteriorated. However, she succumbed just after reaching the hospital.
The body was seized by Soro police and sent for postmortem. An unnatural death (UD) case was registered in this connection.
Similarly, a 23-year-old youth drowned in the right canal of Samal barrage while floating a paper boat. The deceased was identified as Ashis Sahoo of Chasakud village in Pallahara sub-division.
Talcher IIC Digvijay Biswal said the youth had come to his relative house at Kankili village. In the morning, he along with some villagers went to the right canal of Rengali to celebrate Kartika Purnima. He went into deep water to float a paper boat and drowned. Locals jumped into the canal and rescued him. Ashis was taken to Mandapal sub-divisional hospital where the doctor declared him dead.