Girl drowns in pool at Chennai's complex

CHENNAI: An eight-year-old girl drowned in the swimming pool of an apartment complex at Ambattur on Saturday night as her mother sat a few feet away chatting with a friend. The child, Thanania, daughter of Balaji and Kanmani, was a Class III student of a private school.
Thanania and Kanmani had gone to the apartment complex to have dinner at her classmate's home. The two mothers too had become friends meeting at the school.
After 5pm on Saturday, Thanania, her classmate and that girl's younger brother insisted on playing in the pool. Their mothers told them to be careful and sat talking a short distance away. Every 10 minutes or so they kept checking on the children.
Police said the swimming pool was used by both children and adults. The children used floats to play in the water. The children had been in the water for more than 30 minutes when the girl who lived in the complex raised the alarm, said Ambattur Estate inspector Thiruvalluvar. When the mothers rushed to the pool they found Thanania motionless in the water. They alerted the security guard, who jumped in and brought her out. She wasdeclared dead at a hospital, police said.