Three minor girls drowned in a pond at Kurshi Uparpara village under Umerkote block in Nabarangpur district on Thursday afternoon.
The victims, identified as Bhumika (5), daughter of Balsai Gand; Sandhya (6) and Sanjita (5), daughters of Rajman Gand, had gone to wash clothes near the pond.
According to reports, the children accidentally entered deep water and could not come out. Later, some local boys noticed one of them floating and alerted the villagers. On reaching the spot, villagers rescued one child but discovered clothes belonging to the other two near the pond. After searching, they found both girls had drowned.
All three were pulled out of the water, but by then they had died. The incident cast a pall of gloom over the entire village.
Police from Umerkote reached the site, sent the bodies for post-mortem, and began an investigation.
