3 kids, out to collect wood due to LPG crisis, drown in Saryu

Patna: Three children of a family drowned in the Saryu river in Saran district on Friday. The incident occurred when one of them slipped into the river while trying to drink water, and his sisters attempted to rescue him but were also swept away.

Despite efforts, the children could not be saved and their bodies were recovered about 100 metres downstream. The family had been facing a shortage of LPG cylinder and the children had gone to collect firewood.The victims were identified as Gunjan Kumar (10), son of Pappu Mahto, his daughter Ragini Kumari (12), and Priyanshi Kumari (13), the daughter of relative Krishna Mahto, a resident of Paigambarpur in the Baniyapur police station area.

Priyanshi was the maternal cousin of Gunjan and Ragini. The incident occurred at Matiyar village in the Manjhi police station area.The elder brother of Gunjan, Shyam Kumar, said, “LPG cylinder at our home had run out several days ago. There was difficulty in cooking food. Today morning at around 8am, 7 children from the village, including me, went to the diara area to cut wood with the help of axes.”While cutting wood, Gunjan felt thirsty and went towards the Saryu river to drink water.

However, his foot suddenly slipped and he went into deep water. Seeing her brother drowning, his sister Ragini jumped into the river to save him, but she too lost her balance and began drowning.Seeing both of them struggling in the water, their maternal cousin Priyanshi also entered the river in an attempt to save them. However, she too slipped into deep water and all three drowned.Gunjan’s elder brother and another youth also entered the river in an attempt to rescue them, but they somehow managed to save themselves and came out.Hearing the children’s cries for help, people present nearby rushed to the spot and immediately began searching for them.Manjhi SHO Vinod Kumar said, “After nearly 45 minutes of effort, the bodies of all three children were recovered within a radius of about 100 metres from the incident site. The bodies were sent to the Sadar Hospital in Chhapra for post-mortem examination.”