Five children drown in Katni river; MP CM expresses grief over tragic incident

Five children out on a picnic on the banks of a river in the Katni district of Madhya Pradesh were drowned on Monday. Out of five, three bodies were fished out while rescue operation has been going on to trace the remaining two missing bodies.

Katni (Madhya Pradesh): Five children went to a river bank to celebrate the birthday of one of their friends and met the watery grave on Monday. All five children hailed from Devra Khurd village under the NGJ police station area in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh. The tragic incident took place late on Monday evening. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has expressed grief over the tragic incident. The rescue team has been deployed from Jabalpur. Due to darkness prevailing in the area, there was a hindrance in carrying out the rescue operation for some time. Later, the lighting arrangements were made.

Expressing grief over the tragic incident, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in his Twitter handle stated, "Deeply saddened after hearing the news. Drivers from SDRF and administration have been searching for the remaining bodies. Efforts will be made to fish out the remaining bodies. I was in constant touch with Collector in this regard."

Divers of the Homeguard unit and SDRF have been pressed into service to carry out the rescue operation. Of the five, three bodies have been fished out while efforts are on to trace the remaining two bodies. Katni MLA Sandeep Jayaswal, Collector Priyanka Mishra, SP Sunil Kumar Jain, Katni tahsildar and SHO of NKG police station have been overseeing the rescue operation. According to police, the deceased has been identified as Mahpal Singh (15), Sahil Chakraborty (15), Surya Vishwakarma (15), Ayush Vishwakarma (13) and Anuj Soni (13).