Jamshedpur: As many as 162 students, who were trapped in a flooded private primary residential school in Potka block of East Singhbhum as heavy rain lashed the area, were rescued on Sunday.Incessant rain, which was battering East Singhbhum and other parts of Kolhan division since Saturday evening, caused the water level of the nearby Gudra river to rise. The water then gushed onto the premises of Lav Kush Residential School at Pandrasali and inundated it. As the school building was submerged, the teachers shifted all the students to the rooftop around 4 am on Sunday.With a section of the school campus submerged by the early hours of Sunday, it was impossible to move the students out. Around 4:30 am, the Kovali police received a distress call from the school management. This prompted the district authorities to launch a rescue operation.The officer-in-charge of Kovali police station, Dhananjay Paswan, said, “The police reached the school at 5 am and rescued the children using boats and ropes over the next one hour.”Local students were sent home. The district administration is making arrangements to send the students, belonging to Dumaria, Ghatshila, Musabani, Jamshedpur, and other districts, to their respective homes, he added.“The school has been closed till further notice,” OC Paswan stated.Dhalbhum sub-divisional officer (SDO) Gautam Kumar said, “A detailed investigation will be carried out.”
