Karnataka: 3 children drown in pond, 4 swim to safety

GAURIBIDANUR: Three kids, including one from Bengaluru, drowned on Sunday when they tried to swim in a krushi honda (agriculture pond) at a village in Gauribidanur taluk, Chikkaballapur district.
The victims are Manoj, 15, of Bengaluru, Rajesh and Likith, both 16-year-olds from Hampasandra village.
Manoj had come to the village to spend summer holidays at a relative's house. He went to the pond with six children of the neighbourhood for a swim.All of them got caught in the swirling waters; four managed to swim to safety but the remaining three drowned. Despite efforts, villagers who rushed there could not save them.
Assistant fire officer (Gauribidanur) Vasanth Kumar said his office received a call about the incident around noon. By the time he and his team reached the spot, the villagers had retrieved the bodies. The pond, he said, is quite big and villagers had to dig canals on both sides to drain out water to take out the bodies.