Four school students from same neighbourhood found dead in Thiruneermalai lake

CHENNAI: Four schoolchildren — two boys and two girls — from the same neighbourhood who went missing from their homes in Chromepet since Saturday afternoon were found dead in Thiruneermalai lake on Sunday.

The police said the deceased were from Lakshmipuram, Krishna Street, in Chromepet and were friends as well as neighbours. The children have been identified as K Devadarshan (12), D Yuvanesh (10), Pooja and Khushi, both 13. Devadarshan was a class 7 student at a government school where the girls were studying in class 8. Yuvanesh was a class 6 student at a private school.

On Saturday afternoon, the four children were seen hanging out together near their houses and later left the area. When they did not return till late night, their parents began checking with relatives and friends where the kids could probably have been hanging out. When no information came through, the parents circulated messages with the children’s photos on local WhatsApp groups, requesting residents to inform if they find the children.

After the efforts yielded no results, the parents of the boys lodged a missing person complaint at the Chromepet Police Station late on Saturday night. The Chromepet Police alerted their counterparts in Tambaram, Egmore, Chennai Central railway stations and at the Kelambakkam bus terminus to check whether the students travelled out of station.

On Sunday around 10 am, some people who visited the Thiruneermalai Periya Eri near Lakshmipuram noticed four bodies floating in the water and alerted the authorities. The police, along with rescue personnel from the Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services department, retrieved the bodies.

After the family members identified the deceased children, their bodies were sent to the Tambaram District Government Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

The police are investigating how the children reached the lake. They also suspect the children may have got trapped in the slush and drowned.