HYDERABAD: Five schoolchildren and their teacher drowned in a lake in Malkapuram under Jawaharnagar police station limits on Saturday. According to police sources, 40 students of the Madrasa-e-Hanifa at Kacheguda, supervised by their teacher Yahiya, 25, went to a housewarming ceremony at Malkapuram.
At around 11 am, six students broke away from the group and reached Yerragunta lake. Soon after they ventured into the lake, they began drowning. Yahiya jumped in and tried to save them, but drowned. A local managed to save one of the children Locals informed Jawaharnagar police who reached the spot and pressed expert swimmers to retrieve the bodies.
The police shifted the bodies to Gandhi Hospital for autopsy, registered a case and began an investigation.
The students were identified as Riyan,12, Ayan, 9, Sohail, 9, Jaffer, 10, and Ismail, 11. Malkapuram residents said that the lake was recently developed at a cost of `1 crore but the authorities failed to install fencing. Kushaiguda ACP Sadhan Rashmi Perumal along with Inspector Chandrasekhar visited the spot.