KOCHI: Thirteen students and three teachers of St. Antony's Upper Primary School, Elavoor, near Angamaly, drowned in the Bhoothathankettu reservoir off the Thattekkad bird sanctuary, near Kothamangalam, in a boat capsize on Tuesday evening.

Reports (at 9.30 p.m.) said their bodies were fished out by local people and Fire and Rescue Services personnel. Search is on for about 15 students, teachers and ayahs.

Only two of the 42 children had been rescued. One of them is in the intensive care unit of a private hospital at Kothamangalam and the other has been taken to a hospital in Ernakulam. The accident occurred at 6.30 p.m.

Sources at St. Antony's Church, Elavoor, which runs the school, said the children of Classes V, VI and VII, who left the school for the picnic in the morning, went for the boat ride in the evening after visiting the Thattekad bird sanctuary.

110 children in boat

The children, numbering 110, were accompanied by the headmistress and five teachers. The children are aged below 12 years.

They were being taken around the reservoir in three private boats when one of them capsized. The cause of accident is yet to be ascertained.

The students and teachers in the other two boats are safe.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail