6 school students went for a picnic at Lotwa Dam, drown: Hazaribagh Police

Police said the six victims were part of a group of seven students of a Hazaribagh school that bunked classes on Tuesday and instead went to Lotwa Dam

RANCHI:  Six class 12 students drowned at Lotwa Dam in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand on Tuesday morning, police said.

Police said the preliminary investigation suggests the boys had no idea about the 50-feet depth of the dam close to the bank (Screengrab)

Police said the six victims were part of a group of seven students of Mount Egmont School that bunked school on Tuesday. Instead, the teenagers decided to go to the dam, about 20km from school, for a picnic.

Hazaribagh superintendent of police (SP) Manoj Ratan Chothe said the school children appeared to have erred about the depth of the dam at the spot where they decided to take a bath.

“Preliminary investigation suggests the boys had no idea about the 50-feet depth of the dam close to the bank. When one fell, the others rushed to rescue him resulting in their death,” Chothe said.

The police officer said the six bodies were found at the same spot.

A local resident said one of the seven boys did not take off his school uniform and stayed out of the water. “It was this boy who was outside the dam who raised an alarm after he realised that his friends were drowning,” he said.

Chief minister Hemant Soren expressed his grief at the tragic incident in Hazaribagh, 100km north of state capital Ranchi.

“My heart is saddened by the sad news of the drowning of six children in Lotwa Dam of Hazaribagh district. Relief and rescue work is being done by the district administration. May God grant peace to the souls of the children who died in the accident and give strength to the bereaved families to bear this difficult time of grief,” Hemant Soren said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

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