At least six children,
including two girls and two brothers, drowned in separate incidents in Odisha today during celebration of the auspicious Kartika Purnima, the police said.
Two minor girls drowned at Sakuntalapur village in Jajpur district while they were trying to collect tiny paper boats which are set afloat in Sana Genguti river on the occasion of Kartika Purnima, they said.
The deceased have been identified as Barsha Samal (5) and Purnima Samal (4). "We have seized the bodies and conducted postmortem on them," said Uma Kanta Swain, inspector-in-charge of Barachana police station.
In a similar incident in Balasore district, two brothers aged around 8 and 3 years drowned in a pond at village Gadabhaga-I under Khantapara poilce station limit during Kartik Purnima festival, police said their bodies were fished out by locals.
A four-year-old boy, identified as Sai Satyam Ojha, dlipped into a pond and drowned at village Janhimula under Derabis police station area in Kendrapara district, police said.
In yet another incident in Kendrapara district, a two-year-old boy, Rakesh Mallick, drowned in a village pond in Mahakalapara area, they said.
