Koraput/Baripada (Odisha), March 7 Five school students, including two girls, drowned in separate incidents in Odisha's Koraput and Mayurbhanj districts 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 hostel residents, and the incident is suspected to have occurred between 3 pm and 3.30 pm. Further investigation is underway," Koraput Sub-divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Sanjay Mandal said.
The deceased have been identified as Lingaraj Khil (16), Swastik (15), and Om Prakash (16), all tenth-grade students of 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 institute and demanded a thorough investigation into the incident.
Opposition parties BJD and Odisha Congress have expressed grief over the deaths of three students from the Koraput-based Navodaya School.
Taking to X, BJD president Naveen Patnaik said, "The news of three students from Koraput Navodaya Vidyalaya losing their lives by drowning in a reservoir is heartbreaking. I pray for the eternal peace of the departed souls. I extend my deepest condolences to the bereaved families and loved ones as they face this tragic time."
OPCC president Bhakta Charan Das, in a social media post, said, "Deeply saddened by the tragic demise of three Navodaya Vidyalaya students who drowned in the Kolab reservoir in Koraput. My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. May Mahaprabhu grant them strength to bear this irreparable loss."
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, however, pronounced them dead upon arrival, Kaptipada police station inspector in-charge Madhumita Mohanty said.