Bhubaneswar: A 10-year-old boy died after being swept away in an open drain in Masjid Colony of Bhubaneswar as heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorm and lightning lashed the city on Tuesday afternoon.
The boy, identified as Abubakar Saha, was rescued by locals and Fire Service personnel near Oscar City locality under Laxmi Sagar, around 3 km from the mishap spot, in a critical condition after a hour-long search operation and taken to Capital Hospital. The family members were later informed that the boy had died.
It is being suspected that the boy was swept away while trying to retrieve a balloon from the drain.
Bhubaneswar Mayor Sulochana Das, Bhubaneswar-Central MLA Ananta Narayan Jena and even Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi reached the hospital after being informed about the incident.
Confirming that the boy had died, Jena said that the body is being taken for postmortem.
The Mayor said that work was being carried out on netting the drain and it had water. “The boy was swept away while collecting his balloon. There are 11 drains in the city with the main drain spanning over 77 km and it is not possible to complete them all in a year since there are unauthorised constructions. Nets are being erected on both sides of the drains in populated areas,” she said.
Das added that steps are being taken to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
Such drains turn into killer traps during monsoon and have claimed several lives in the past including that of a 15-year-old boy Jyoti Prakash Behera, whose body was recovered almost 20 hours after he was swept away by stormwater into an open drain in Shatabdi Nagar area of the city in September 2021.
