Navy boat capsizes; 10 children killed

Srinagar, May 30 (UNI) At least ten children were killed when a boat of the Indian Navy capsized in the Wullar lake at Watlab in north Kashmir this afternoon.

A defence spokesman, however, put the toll at eight.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has expressed grief over the death of the children.

The spokesman said a group of children from Borne Tyndle Public school, Handwara, was on picnic to the Wullar lake, the second largest sweet water lake in Asia, in Baramulla district.

The children had requested Navy sailors, deployed off the lake, for counter-insurgency operations, to take them for a ride on the boat.

The sailors, after getting permission from their officer, took the children in a boat. However, when the boat reached in the middle of the lake, it flipped over, he added.

Other Navy personnel and others immediately jumped into the lake and saved a number of them.

However, eight boys could not be saved, he said, adding six bodies have been recovered and a search for others was on.

Indian Navy sailors are posted in the Wullar lake following reports that militants were hiding in the area.

UNI BAS HS ND1936