TIRUVANNAMALAI: Four minor girls from a govt home and a woman caretaker of the home drowned in a lake in a village near Tiruvannamalai on Monday.The deceased have been identified as Vijayalakshmi,16, Alli,14, Bhumika,13, and Valliyammal,16, inmates of the govt home at Anaipiranthandhan in Tiruvannamalai district and the home’s caretaker, Thenmozhi,24, from Vazhuthalangunam village in the district. All four deceased girls hailed from Karappattu village in the district.The home, which functions under the district child protection unit of the department of social welfare and women’s empowerment, houses more than a hundred minor girls attending various schools in the district.More than 10 girls from the facility went behind the home to the adjacent Samuthiram lake. The lake had filled to its full capacity due to recent rain in the region.While playing near the water, a few girls entered the lake to bathe. Four of them ventured into deep water and began to drown. The home caretaker, on learning about the children in distress, immediately reached the spot. She jumped into the lake to save the children. However, she got trapped in the silt and drowned.Tiruvannamalai district collector Vandana Garg, superintendent of police R Uthayakumar, and other senior govt officials arrived at the location to inspect the govt home and the lake premises. The Tiruvannamalai (West) police personnel recovered the bodies with the help of fire and rescue services personnel and sent them for postmortem to Tiruvannamalai Govt Medical College Hospital. Police registered a case and launched a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
