Chennai, July 12 : In a heart-wrenching incident, three young boys from Thiruvengada Udayanpatti village near Vallam in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district drowned in a pond.

The victims, identified as S. Balamurugan (10), S. Jaswanth (8), and K. Madhavan (10), were all students of the Panchayat Union Primary School in the same village.

According to sources, the children had gone out after school and failed to return home until late Friday night.

Parents, initially assuming that the boys had gone to the Sundaramurthy Ayyanarkoil temple festival in nearby Maruthakudi, began searching for them only around 10 p.m.

A breakthrough came when a local mentioned seeing the children near the Pillayar temple pond in Maruthakudi.

Upon reaching the spot, the families discovered school bags left unattended on the bank of the pond.

Moments later, the lifeless bodies of the three boys were found floating in the water. They were immediately rushed to the Government Thanjavur Medical College Hospital (TMCH), but doctors declared all three brought dead.

The Vallam Police have registered a case and are investigating the circumstances of the drowning. While foul play is not suspected, questions have arisen about the safety of open water bodies in the vicinity of public spaces, particularly near temples frequently visited by families and children.

This tragic incident is the latest in a growing list of drowning deaths in Tamil Nadu in recent weeks.

Just last month, two college students drowned while bathing in a check dam in Salem. In another incident in Tirunelveli, four teenagers lost their lives while attempting to swim in a rain-filled quarry.

These cases underline the urgent need for awareness campaigns and safety barriers around ponds, lakes, and quarries, particularly in rural and semi-urban areas. Local authorities have urged parents to remain vigilant and ensure that children do not play unsupervised near water bodies.

The community of Thiruvengada Udayanpatti remains in deep mourning, grappling with the sudden and collective loss of three young lives.

/IANS