Two children drowned in a sump at a construction site at Kodigehalli in K R Puram, east Bengaluru on Thursday.

The deceased have been identified as Naveen (5) and his one-year-old sister Basamma, who were staying in a makeshift shed near the building site in Kodigehalli near Ayyappanagar in KR Puram. The children’s father Mallappa was out of town and their mother Kavitha had gone out when the incident occurred, the police said.

The incident came to light around 1.30 pm when Kavitha, who found the children missing, checked the sump after seeing the wooden planks covering it were displaced. She then saw both her children had drowned and screamed for help. Neighbours rushed to the spot and pulled out the children from the sump and shifted them to a hospital where both were declared brought dead.

According to the police, Mallappa had gone to Yadgir for 15 days to meet his first wife, while his wife Kavitha, her mother and grandmother along with the children were staying in the makeshift shed.

The police suspect the children may have wandered near the sump when Kavitha had gone out. They probably removed the planks covering it and fell into the sump, they said.

The KR Puram police who are investigating, have ruled out foul play and have taken up a case of unnatural death. The police also said that the owner of the building had provided shelter to Mallappa’s family.