JOIN USAt least three children died and one child was in a critical condition when a van carrying around 25 school students plunged into a canal near here today.
While most of the children were rescued by local people, two boys and a girl, all aged below 12, lost their lives as the van taking them home through a narrow road along the banks of a branch canal of Parvathy Puthanar river plunged into it at Channankara, about 25 km from here.
The condition of all the children, except one, was stable, sources said.
Initial reports said four children were missing, but police said no complaint of missing children had been received.
Ten rescued children were admitted to the government SAT Hospital and six in Missions Hospital at Kazhakoottam.
Before the accident, two children had alighted from the van at previous stops and four others had been taken home by their parents. The children were from Jyothinilayam school in Kazhakoottam on the city outskirts.
However, rescue operations are still on and Naval divers from Kochi have also joined the team.
The road on which the van was travelling had no sidewall. The exact cause of the accident was yet to be established but the driver of the van denied overspeeding.
This was the second accident in the state capital involving school children within an year after a similar mishap claiming the lives of six children and a woman aid of a pre-primary school at Karikkam in February.