Four minor girls drown in Bihar’s Banka

Banka (Bihar): Four minor girls drowned in a pond while taking bath in Anandpur area of Banka district on Tuesday, officials said.

The girls were rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors declared them ‘brought dead’ on arrival, they said.

The incident took place when the group had gone to take a bath in a pond in the morning. Their bodies were fished out by locals and later sent for postmortem examination, the officials said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed condolence over the deaths, and announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the family members of the deceased.

Meanwhile, Four girls, aged between 10 to 14 years, drowned in a pond in a village in UP’s Bahraich. The victims - Mehak Khatoon (14), Samia (10), Saiba (10) and Sarikul Khatoon (13) - had gone in the pond to pull lotus plants when they slipped into deep water and drowned.