In a tragic incident, two children who went missing while playing on Sunday accidentally drowned in a lake at KC Thanda in Maheshwaram on the city outskirts. Their bodies were retrieved on Monday.
The victims were identified as Rishi (6) and Badrinath (8), cousins and students of a local government school.
According to the police, the children went out to play on Sunday evening and did not return home. Their families searched the surrounding areas and later lodged a complaint at the Maheshwaram police
station.
Based on information that the boys were last seen near a Shiva idol close to the village, search operations were launched by the local police with the help of expert swimmers at the nearby Kotwal Cheruvu, where they were suspected to have drowned.
Fire services personnel, police staff and local swimmers conducted search efforts under floodlights until late night, but the children could not be traced. On Monday morning, their bodies were recovered from the lake by villagers, who alerted the police.