In a heart-wrenching development, a boat carrying schoolkids and teachers capsized on Thursday killing 16 people including 14 children and 2 teachers. Schoolkids and teachers boarded the boat for a picnic on Thursday, however, it overturned in the Harni Lake on the outskirts of Vadodara in Gujarat. As per reports, the boat was carrying a total of 27 students and their teachers who were out on a picnic. Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel reached the site and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office announced ex gratia of Rs 2 lakhs for people who died in the tragic accident. As of now, 10 children have been rescued. Now, Vadodara Boat Accident Video is going viral on social media and it showcases the aftermath of the tragic incident.
In one of the Vadodara Boat accident videos, people can be seen pulling out children from the lake. The boat can be seen kept on the shore in a titled position while many people trying to rescue the drowning children. Another Vadodara Boat is a CCTV. In the CCTV, children can be seen getting on the boat in a queue while teachers supervise them.
Gujarat Education Minister Kuber Dindor reportedly said the NDRF and the fire brigade personnel have been deployed for the search operation. Jaideep Gadhavi, Sub Fire Officer at Vadodara Fire and Emergency Services was quoted saying, "We received info that a boat has capsized in the Harni Motnath Lake. We rescued 20 people out of which 14 died, including 2 teachers. Two teams of Vadodara Fire Service are on stand-by mood at the incident spot. Eight teams of the Vadodara Rescue team immediately reached the spot. The search operation is underway with the help of an underwater camera. Efforts are being made to identify some children based on their belongings. At 10 am we will file the missing report after the search is over..."
Notably, netizens have been expressing their disbelief and are outlining how the children were allowed to be on boat without lifejacket. A user wrote, "13 school kids on picnic died as a boat capsized in Harni lake near #Vadodara It had 34 occupants including 30 students with no life jackets. To be frank the teachers should also be held accountable if they’ve survived."
Another user wrote, "14 kids and 2 teachers of New Sunrise School in #Gujarat have died after boat capsized in Harni Lake in Vadodara. Om Shanti. A horrible tragedy. The boat was carrying 27 people instead of maximum 16 permitted and that too without life jacket. Who’s responsible?"
One more user wrote, "I believe the teachers are responsible too. Without life jackets how can they imagine taking kids in the boat. Ofcourse the trip planners are responsible too.. but had the two teachers applied a bit common sense, This tragedy could have been avoided."
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