9-yr-old girl feared washed away in City drain

Mangalore Today News Network

Bangalore, Oct 07, 2014, DHNS:  A nine-year-old girl is feared to have been washed away after she fell into an overflowing drain at Bilekahalli on Bannerghatta Road during the heavy rain that lashed the City on Monday night.

 

Operations were in full swing till late in the night to trace the girl who slipped into the partially covered drain that was being repaired by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Staff from BBMP, Fire and Emergency Services and locals were involved in the rescue work.

Police said the girl, Geetha Lakshmi, a native of Cuddalore district in Tamil Nadu, had come to Bangalore to celebrate Dasara with her relatives. Around 9 pm, she and her aunt were returning home after visiting a friend.  Both were walking on the pavement which has been constructed over a drain. It was raining heavily and the entire road and the pavements were submerged.
 
1As repair works were on, some slabs covering the drain had been removed.

Laksmi’s aunt, who was speaking on the mobile phone, thought that she had helped the girl to cross the drain. It was only after she finished her conversation on the phone that she realised that Lakshmi was missing and might have been washed away in the gushing waters.

BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana said they would continue the operation till Tuesday morning to trace the girl. He was not sure whether the girl had really slipped into the drain as claimed by her aunt.

He said the BBMP had been repairing the Bannerghatta Road and desilting the drain for the past six months.