ROURKELA: A five-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother drowned in a water-filled pit at Kadodiha village under Koida police limits in Sundargarh district on Thursday.
The victims were identified as Priya Bhumij and her brother Manoj Bhumij. Father Sambhu said the siblings went missing on Thursday morning following which family members and neighbours launched a frantic search. The minors later found the duo inside a water-filled pit in the area. They were rushed to Koida community health centre (CHC) where doctors declared them brought dead.
Sambhu claimed that the pit had been dug by a neighbour to construct a septic tank. It was left open and got filled with water following recent rains. He suspected that the children accidentally slipped into the deep pit and drowned. On getting information, police reached the CHC in the evening for investigation. The bodies have been sent for postmortem.