Vrindavan: Four students die after entering water tank at residential school

MATHURA: Four students died and another fell unconscious after they entered a water tank to clean it at a residential school in Vrindavan, police said on Wednesday. The incident took place on Tuesday at Vrindavan Gurukulam. The students entered the tank after noticing that foul smell was emanating from it.

Mathura Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Shlok Kumar said one student first entered the tank to clean it but did not come out. After that, four other students went inside the tank.

When they too did not emerge, people present there pulled them out. The students were rushed to a hospital, where four of them were declared dead.

Those killed were identified as Manu Katara (24), a resident of Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh; Rishab Sharma (18) from Meerut; Aryan Sharma (18) from Kaushambi and Devansh (17) from Vidhisha district of Madhya Pradesh. Dr. Vinit Yadav Medical Superintendent of the local hospital here said that the fifth boy, Rudra Videsh (18) is stable and recovering.

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DM orders inquiry

District magistrate Chandra Prakash Singh has ordered an inquiry into the incident by the city magistrate. Police are examining CCTV footage from the premises to ascertain the sequence of events. "Further legal action will be taken after receiving a complaint from the families," Kumar said, adding the bodies have been sent for postmortem and efforts are underway to contact their families.

Around 200 students are learning Sanskrit at the school and at present 100 students are residing inside the campus. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed grief over the loss of lives in the incident. In a post on X, the chief minister described the incident as "extremely sad and heartbreaking" and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families.