Four Chennai schoolchildren found dead in Thiruneermalai lake after going missing

A neighbourhood in Chromepet was plunged into grief on Sunday after four schoolchildren from the same street were found dead in Thiruneermalai Periya Eri, a day after they went missing while playing near their homes.

The victims—K Devadarshan (12), D Yuvanesh (10), and two 13-year-old girls, Pooja and Khushi—were friends and neighbours from Krishna Street in Lakshmipuram. Devadarshan and the two girls studied in Classes 7 and 8 at a government school, while Yuvanesh was a Class 6 student at a private school.

Police said the children were last seen together on Saturday afternoon. When they failed to return home, families launched a frantic search, contacting relatives, circulating photographs on WhatsApp and seeking help from residents. After hours of unsuccessful searching, the parents of the two boys filed a missing persons complaint at Chromepet police station late on Saturday night.

Acting on the complaint, police alerted railway stations at Tambaram, Egmore and Chennai Central, as well as the Kelambakkam bus terminus, to check whether the children had travelled out of the area. On Sunday morning, locals visiting Thiruneermalai lake spotted four bodies floating in the water and informed authorities. Fire and Rescue Services personnel retrieved the bodies, which were later identified by family members and shifted to the mortuary at Tambaram District Government Hospital for post-mortem.

Investigators are piecing together the children’s movements between the time they were last seen and when they reached the lake. While police suspect the children may have entered the water to bathe or play and got trapped in slush before drowning, the exact sequence of events remains unclear and is under verification.

(Inputs from IANS)