Six students drowned in a lake during a Ganesh idol immersion ceremony near Patancheru in Telangana’s Sangareddy district, on the outskirts of Hyderabad, on Wednesday evening, police said.
The incident happened at Nereducherla lake in Pedda Kanjerla village at around 6pm.
Patancheru police station officers said a group of nine students, all inmates of Sirisha Charitable Trust, an NGO in Inole village in Patancheru mandal, went to the lake to immerse a Ganesh idol.
“The students walked a little deep into the water to immerse the idol, but did not notice a huge pit underneath the water. Six of them plunged into the pit and drowned, while three others, who could swim, managed to swim back to the shore,” a police officer said.
Police identified the deceased as Narasimha Raju (21), an engineering student; Sumanth (19), Ganesh (18), Uday Kiran (21) and Sham Kumar (18), all polytechnic diploma students; and Siddharth (16), a Class X student.
The police team that reached the spot after receiving the information retrieved the bodies with the help of locals.