Students saved by whisker

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Autorickshaw with 9 children falls into Perandoor canal, none injured. A major tragedy was averted as nine students miraculously escaped with no injuries, after the auto rickshaw they were traveling in overturned and fell into the Perandoor canal near Pulleppady Bridge on Friday afternoon. Thanks to a timely rescue operation undertaken by local people and a traffic policeman, the students, who are from Kendriya Vidyalaya in Kadavanthara, were immediately taken to a hospital nearby.

The students were identified as Athira Raj (12), Arathi Raj (10), Jyothi Lakshman (7), Abhinav (8), Sreehari B. Nair (6), Karthika (10), Gouri Parvathi (6), Nandana Kannan Das (6) and Fineshya Benny (8).

According to eye witnesses, the accident occurred at 3.05 pm when the auto skidded off the road while turning right to Kaloor after crossing the bridge over the Perandur Canal.

“We jumped into the canal immediately and saved the kids. Fortunately the water level was low. The fire and rescue team also reached the spot on time and rushed the students to the hospital. The auto rickshaw was pulled out from the water using a crane,” said Srinivasan, the home guard, who along with others was responsible for rescuing the kids. At the hospital, the children’s stomachs were cleaned out as the canal was extremely dirty and they were discharged in the evening.

Later. the police arrested auto driver Sandeep of Kadavanthara on charges of overloading his vehicle with more students than mandated and also for reckless driving. He had told the police that he usually took the students to school in his van, but it had broken down on Friday forcing him to take the kids in an auto. He also said that he lost control of the auto when he tried to avoid a motor bike that came from the opposite direction.