Koraput/Baripada (Odisha), March 7 Five school students, including two girls, died in separate incidents in the districts of Koraput and Mayurbhanj in Odisha on Saturday, police said.
Three tenth-grade students drowned in the backwaters of the Kolab reservoir near their school in the afternoon.
They had completed their tenth-grade board examinations and were waiting for their parents to arrive and take them home. To celebrate completing their exams, they went to play in the water but drowned, a police officer said.
Locals rescued the students and rushed them to the Saheed Laxman Nayak Medical College and Hospital in Koraput, where doctors pronounced them dead.
"The students were boarders at the hostel, and the incident is suspected to have occurred between 3 pm and 3.30 pm. Further investigation is underway," said Koraput Sub-divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Sanjay Mandal.
The deceased have been identified as Lingaraj Khil (16), Swastik (15), and Om Prakash (16), all tenth-grade students at the school, police said.
While school authorities were not immediately available for comment, the families of the deceased have alleged negligence on the part of the institution and demanded a thorough investigation into the incident.
In another incident in Mayurbhanj, two girls, second-grade students, drowned while taking a bath in a pond near their village, Nachhipur, in the Kaptipada police station area.
The victims, identified as seven-year-old Subhasandhya Nayak and eight-year-old Rajalaxmi Sankhual, were classmates.
Family members said the two friends went to take a bath in the pond after returning from school.
Upon learning that the girls were drowning, their family members rushed to the pond and pulled them out and took them to the Kaptipada hospital, where doctors pronounced them dead upon arrival, said Kaptipada police station inspector in-charge Madhumita Mohanty.