Bihar floods: Five children die after drowning in pit, flood related death toll in state rises to 92

Tragedy continued to take its toll on Bihar amid floods, as five children drowned after they fell into a pit near the riverine area in Samastipur district. Floods have dismantled the daily living conditions of the people in various parts of the state. The children fell into the pit while they were playing nearby. While the body of three children has been recovered with the help of the locals, the civic authorities are pursuing further attempts to retrieve bodies of more children if there any. 

The horrific incident unfolded as the children were reportedly playing near a chimney near the river which had swollen past the danger mark as there was an excess discharge of water into the body post the floods. The children, who did not notice the pit, fell into it and were drowned. 

"Five children were playing near the riverine area where there was a pit. Two children fell into the pit after which the three others tried to jump in to save the two. However, all five are feared dead, with three bodies already being fished out by the locals. The civic authorities are scanning the pit to see if there are any more bodies inside", sources said.

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In yet another tragic incident in Bihar, eight children were killed after lightning caused a tree to collapse. Bihar is already reeling under floods and underwent a severe Encephalitis outbreak which killed over a hundred children.

The flood situation had been remained grim in parts of the northeast and Bihar. The death toll had mounted to 92 on Friday, with around 67 lakh people were affected in 12 districts of the state, officials said. Only two of the 12 districts- Muzaffarpur and Katihar have reported no deaths so far. A total of 66.76 lakh people in 1,107 panchayats have been hit by flooding.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar launched a drive under which Rs 181 crore was disbursed among the affected people through direct cash transfer and each of the flood-hit family got Rs 6,000.

Extreme rainfall in Nepal and massive discharge of water from rivers have led to flood situation in the state. An official report by the Disaster Management Department 13 teams of NDRF and SDRF have been deployed to carry out relief and rescue operations in the affected districts. The authorities have also opened 152 relief camps giving shelter to 45,053 people, while 251 community kitchens have been made functional.

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