The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Four drown in Chembarambakkam lake

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Monday, Sep 24, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Four drown in Chembarambakkam lake

Special Correspondent

Three of them belong to a family
None of them knew swimming

TAMBARAM: Four youngsters, including three of a family, drowned in the Chembarampakkam lake in Kunrathur on Sunday.

They had gone to the lake for a bath, but drowned when they entered the 10-foot-deep lake. None of the victims knew swimming, police said.

Saranya (16), Sharmila (13) and Santhosh (9) were children of Murugesan of Periyar Nagar in Kunrathur.

Murugesan is a construction worker and his three children studied in a government school in Kunrathur. D. Rajeswari (19) of Papanasam in Thanjavur district had come to their house recently.

On Sunday afternoon, the four decided to go to the lake that was about one km away from Murugesan’s house.

They climbed over the lake bund and reached the water. Around 2.30 p.m., Santhosh entered the waters but did not return.

Noticing this, the three girls jumped into the lake to save him. However, all of them drowned. Hearing their cries for help, a bunch of youth playing cricket nearby rushed to the spot.

Residents of the area, who reached the spot, plunged into the lake. They managed to pull out two of the children, but it was too late.

Firemen from Poonamallee pulled out the bodies of the two other victims, police said.

Their bodies were taken to Chromepet GH for post-mortem.

Dangerous spots

Lakes in the southern suburbs of Chennai are dangerous spots. Several people who have gone for a swim have drowned.

Besides huge lakes such as the one in Chembarambakkam, there are several lakes in abandoned stone quarries in Tirusulam, Tiruneermalai and Tambaram. The drowning of three children in the lake at an abandoned quarry in Tiruneermalai on April 10 prompted the police to install warning boards near the area.

Indiscriminate mining

Victims are mostly unaware of the risks while entering such water bodies. At the same time, indiscriminate and illegal mining of mud from the lakebed leaves the lake surface uneven, increasing the risk of children and youth getting trapped in thick layers of slush.

Firemen said normally, the bodies of the victims would surface and if that does not happen, they could be retrieved during search operations. But if the victims were trapped in slush, it becomes a near impossible task to retrieve them in the absence of sophisticated equipment, firemen said.

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