Tiruvannamalai: A total of 5 people, including 4 girl students who were staying and studying at a government-aided girls' shelter home near Tiruvannamalai and a female nurse working there, drowned and died when they went to bathe in a lake.
A girls' shelter home called Derteshomes, run with government aid, is functioning in the village of Aanai Piranthan on the Tiruvannamalai Perumbakkam Road. More than 200 girls from extremely poor families, those who have lost their parents, and those who have lost either their mother or father are staying in this shelter home and studying in government schools. More than 100 employees work in this shelter home.
Some of the girls staying at the hostel had gone home for the Diwali holiday and returned to the hostel again this morning.
At around 12 noon, 11 students, with the help of nurse Thenmozhi (24), who was working at the hostel, and another female employee, went to bathe in Samudram Lake, located about 200 meters behind the hostel, in the village of Valuthalangulam next to Keelpenathur.
Upon reaching the lake, first, with the help of nurse Thenmozhi, 5 female students entered the lake to bathe. At that time, when they had gone a short distance into the lake, without realizing that it was deep, one student who had sunk into a pit was being rescued, and one after another, 5 people went in and drowned in the water.
Seeing this, fellow students and staff shouted and screamed, after which construction workers engaged in building the shelter’s compound wall and members of the public immediately rushed to the lake area and rescued the five people who had fallen into the lake: Thenmozhi and the students Valli (16), from Nedungampundi village near Keelpenathur, Vijayalakshmi (16), from Karapattu village near Puthupalayam, Bhoomika (13), and Alli (14).
All those rescued were immediately sent by the West police station police to the Tiruvannamalai Government Medical College Hospital in a 108 ambulance. Doctors who examined them there said that all five had died on the way. Following this, their bodies were sent to the same hospital for postmortem examination.

District Collector Vandana Garg, who was informed about the incident, along with District Superintendent of Police Udayakumar and revenue department officials, visited the Samudram lake area and questioned those involved in the rescue operation. They also inquired about the incident from the shelter staff.
In addition, police from the Tiruvannamalai West Police Station have launched a thorough investigation into the incident. The death of five people, including the girls staying at the shelter, who drowned in the lake, has caused deep sorrow in Tiruvannamalai city.
