Vedaranyam, Dec 03: Nine persons – eight school children and a woman teacher were drowned when a van overturned in a temple pond at Panaiyadikuthagai village near here on Thursday morning.
The van picked up 21 children of a private school and one teacher from the surrounding villages and was heading towards the school when tragedy struck. Police and fire and rescue service personnel rushed to the spot and engaged about 10 motors to pump out water from the pond and have recovered nine bodies so far.
The bodies were removed to Vedaranyam Government Hospital. District Collector C. Munianathan, Superintendent of Police Maheshwar Dayal, who rushed to spot are monitoring the rescue operations.
–Agencies