'I turned around and saw that they had disappeared'

Mother who lost two children in the Bandra pipeline burst says she had instructed her 10-year-old daughter to carry out the crying baby, but they both drowned in the gushing waters

A water pipeline burst in Bandra East yesterday that flooded the Indira Nagar slums within minutes

This family of six was going about their regular day a shanty in Indira Nagar, Behrampada, but little did they know that it was all about to go down the drain. An adjacent pipeline burst and when Poonam Dhoiphode finally made it to a safe spot, turned around to see two of her four children missing. She had only just handed the eight-month-old Swapnil to Priyanka, 10, while she collected all their important documents in their shanty and made a dash for it. Their bodies were found later in the flooded lane.

The spot where the children were trapped and drowned. Pics/Nimesh Dave

Collecting documents
"I was inside the shanty with the children while my husband Santosh had gone to work. When Priyanka told me about the pipe burst, I instructed her to carry him outside so he would stop crying. I had no clue that this will be the last time that I would hear my son cry," said Poonam.

She added, "I had started collecting the documents before the water gushed in, but within a minute, our shanty and the entire lane was flooded. It was only when I reached a safer place, that I turned around and realised only Neha, 13, and Vighnesh, 5, were with me."

Poonam Dhoiphode

Found 2 hours later
Priyanka was found near the pipeline and rushed to VN Desai Hospital, but was declared dead on arrival. Swapnil, however, could not be found for almost two hours; locals finally found him under water in the lane and rushed him to Bhabha Hospital. A traumatised Santosh said, "Some locals ran towards me, informing me about the incident."

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