Tamil Nadu: 5 drown in Chennai pond

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 5 (ANI): Five people drowned in Chennai's Moovarasampet Pond during Nanganallur 'Dharmalingeshwarar Temple' rituals on Wednesday.
The deceased included the priest's sons and volunteers from NGOs who were there to help carry the God's statue. The bodies were sent for autopsy to Chrompet Government Hospital, said Police officials.
Near Dharmalingeshwarar Temple in Chennai, Naganallur Moovarasampet Pond has water of over 20 feet in depth. On Wednesday morning as a part of specific rituals, statues were taken inside the pond in which unfortunately 5 people drowned.
A preliminary investigation reveals that one person drowned in a pond during rituals and the other 4 were drowned when they tried to save the first person.
When people got the message of the incident, they called emergency numbers and the rescue team rushed to the spot and started the rescue operation. 5 were found dead and their bodies were sent to Chrompet Government Hospital for Autopsy.
The deceased were identified as Suriya (24) of Nanganallur, Raghvan (22) of Madipakkam, Raghavan (18) of Nanganallur, Yogeshwaran (23) of Kilkattalai and Pranesh (20) of Nanganallur.
Chennai Commissioner Shankar Jiwal inspected the spot and rescue operation. While speaking with the Press Shankar Jiwal mentioned, "We are investigating this. It is said that during specific rituals one person slipped and while rescuing one person, others drowned. We are investigating this to know more details. Here people say drowned are priests and devotees. Yet to know more details about who they are. Our first job was to find out whether anybody was still stuck in the water as the pond is deep".
Tamil Nadu Rural Industries, Cottage Industries, Small Industries, Slum clearance board Minister T M Anbarasan visited Chrompet Government Hospital and consoled the deceased family.
While speaking with the press, the minister said, "This Morning at 9.30 am as a part of Dharmalingeshwarar Temple rituals, the temple statue was brought to nearby
Moovarasampet Pond in which one person slipped in-depth water. Others who tried to save him also drowned.
Without proper safety measures rituals were organised, so only this incident happened. CM will help the deceased family for sure. This is a private temple. We are investigating more into this," added the minister. (ANI)