GURUGRAM: Six children drowned while taking a bath in a rainwater-filled pond in Haryana's Gurugram on Sunday, police said.
The bodies of the children, all boys aged between 8 and 13, have been recovered, they said.
Durgesh, Ajit, Rahul, Piyush, Deva and Varun, all residents of Shankar Vihar Colony, had gone to take a bath in the pond in the afternoon and drowned, police said.
Teams of police, State Disaster Response Force, Civil Defence, National Disaster Response Force and fire brigade personnel were rushed to the spot and the bodies were fished out of the pond after over a four-hour-long rescue operation which ended at a 9 pm, they said.
The bodies have been sent to the civil hospital and their post-mortem will be conducted on Monday, police said.
Deputy Commissioner, Gurugram, Nishant Kumar Yadav said Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the families of the deceased.
"This is a very unfortunate incident. We will identify such temporary ponds and drain their water so that such an accident does not happen in future," Yadav said According to the police, the pond in question was a barren land in sector 111 and it was filled to the brim after recent rainfall.
The six children, who were playing outside their homes, arrived at the pond at around 3.30 pm to take a bath, they said. It was around 4.30 pm when a boy, Sanju, who was with the children earlier but did not go to the pond, saw the clothes and slippers at the bank of the pond.
He informed the colony members who then alerted the police, Station House Officer Aman Yadav, who led a team to the spot, said.
The first body that was fished out was that of 11-year-old Deva, police said, adding he was a student of Class 6. The other deceased were students of Classes 5 to 9.
"Deva was of my brother Bajrang's son," said Sarjeet Singh, who waited at the pond as the rescue operation was on.
"Clothes and slippers of Ajit (9) and Durgesh (11), sons of my brother Sanjay Singh, were found almost after four hours," Surat Singh said.
Police said the families of the deceased have lived in Shankar Vihar colony for the last many years.
Parents of the deceased mostly work as helpers in factories and laborers, they said.
"It is barren land and children from Shankar Vihar colony came to take bath at this temporary pond in the afternoon. We found the clothes, shoes and slippers of six children suspected to have drowned and finally recovered bodies of all the six. A case will be registered in this regard," Deepak Saharan, DCP (West), told PTI.