Three minor girls, including two sisters, drowned while bathing in a stepwell in Madhya Pradesh's Raisen district on Saturday, police said.
Another girl accompanying them survived and alerted family members about the incident, they said.
The incident occurred around 11 am in Sagor village in Gairatganj tehsil, about 60 km from the district headquarters.
Sub-inspector Virendra Vishwakarma, in charge of the Garhi police outpost, said four girls had gone to bathe in the stepwell. One of the girls slipped into deep water and started drowning. Two other girls tried to save her, but all three drowned, he said.
The minors have been identified as Radha Adivasi (12) and her sister Tanu Adivasi (13), daughters of Halke Ram Adivasi, and their cousin Amrita Adivasi (12), daughter of Ram Gopal Adivasi.
Ram Gopal Adivasi's other daughter Abhina (13), who survived, ran back to the village and informed family members about the drowning.
Villagers and relatives rushed to the spot and pulled the girls out of the well. They were taken to Gairatganj Civil Hospital, where doctors declared them dead, Vishwakarma said.
The bodies were handed over to the families after the post-mortem. A case has been registered, and a probe into the incident is underway, he added.
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