TIRUCHY: A temple festival in Thanjavur's Chellappanpettai ended in tragedy as three primary school boys drowned in the temple tank. Their bodies were found on Saturday.

Villagers in and around Chellappanpettai converged for the Mandalabhishekam festival of Sundaramurthy Ayyanar Temple. S Balamurugan (10), K Madhavan (10), from Udayanpatti, who were studying class 5 at Government Primary School, and S Jaswant (8), a class 3 student from the same school, also participated in the festivities with their parents.

As residents started returning after the festival around 10 pm on Friday, the parents of the three boys realised they were missing and began the search for the students with other villagers.

A few residents told the parents that the trio were spotted bathing in the temple tank. On the banks of the tank, they found the children's clothes and footwear, but were not able to spot the boys. Residents dove into the tank to search and realised the boys had drowned.

Once they retrieved the boys' bodies, they rushed them to Thanjavur Medical College Hospital, where they were declared dead. The Vallam police registered a case and are investigating. Residents noted that the particular spot in the tank was 10 feet deep due to the excess dredging of sand.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister MK Stalin condoled the death of the boys and announced a solatium of Rs 3 lakh each to the family from the CM’s public fund.