KOPPAL: In a tragic incident, five students were electrocuted near Bannikatti in
Koppal district on Sunday morning while they were removing a flag post at their school hostel.
The flag was removed on the evening of August 15, but the post was installed in a box filled with soil. Hostel mates said they were removing the flag post but it fell down on a nearby service cable.
"They were electrocuted immediately," the students added.
The deceased were identified as Mallikarjun of class 10 from Metagal village, Basavaraj of class 10 from Lingadalli village, Devaraj of class 9 from Halageri village, Ganesh of class 8 from Lachanakeri village and Kumar of class 9 from Hyder Nagar village.
Police, fire and emergency department and backward community welfare department officials were rushed to the spot. Parents of deceased were inconsolable.
Expressing grief over the incident, chief minister BS Yediyurappa has announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to the kin of each student. "We have instructed officials to sanction the compensation by Monday itself," he said.