Two brothers fall into temple pond in Thiruverkadu while playing, drown

CHENNAI: Two brothers, aged five and three, drowned after slipping into a temple pond at Thiruverkadu in Tiruvallur district on Saturday afternoon. The police said the siblings were playing near the pond with their pet puppy when they lost balance and fell into the water. The deceased have been identified as Riyaz (5) and Rizvan (3), sons of Tamilarsu alias Thamim Ansari (36), a painter, and Vasanthi (26), working as a housekeeper. The family had recently moved to a rented hut at Ponniyamman Nagar in Thiruverkadu. The police said around noon, while their parents were away at work, the children were playing with their puppy near the pond belonging to the Ponniyamman temple. The puppy reportedly ran close to the water, and the children followed. They slipped on the moss-covered stone steps and fell into the pond. A youngster who was fishing nearby noticed the incident and pulled the children out of the water. The boys were rushed to a nearby hospital, where the doctors declared them brought dead. The Thiruverkadu police have registered a case under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and initiated an investigation. The bodies were sent to Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital for postmortem.