16-year-old girl dies saving siblings from drowning in Ramanathapuram

RAMANATHAPURAM: A 16-year-old girl drowned in a village tank at Sundarapuram near Kamuthi in Ramanathapuram district on Sunday evening.

The police identified the deceased as Naganandhini, daughter of Marudhupandi of Sundarapuram. According to the police, Naganandhini, along with her siblings Nagameena (13) and Sakthi Aravind (11), had gone to bathe in the tank near their house. It is said that the children regularly bathed there.

According to the villagers, the local panchayat had recently deepened the tank, and some portions were dug deep. Unaware of this recent infrastructure work carried out by the local panchayat, the children could not sense the sudden depth in those areas, said the police.

As Nagameena and Naganandhini drifted into a deep area, they were unable to keep their balance and began to drown, a police source said.

A shepherd nearby threw a saree towards them. Both caught hold of it, and he pulled them towards the bank with all his strength, but he could save only Nagameena. Sakthi, who was sitting on the shore, shocked by the incident, ran to inform his parents.

The parents and villagers hurried to the tank and searched for Naganandhini but could not save her. Villagers immediately informed the Kamuthi police, who recovered her body and sent it to the Government Hospital at Kamuthi for postmortem. The police have registered a case and are investigating.