Three children of a family drowned in a pond while taking a bath at the Jamhor block in Bihar’s Aurangabad district on Monday.

The deceased have been identified as Ayush, 6, Tejashwi, 5, and Piyush, 4. While Ayush and Piyush were siblings, Tejashwi was their cousin.

The pond had been dug in the area around a week ago. This prompted the children to venture there. It is located next to an old marshy pond.

Eyewitnesses said that the children were taking baths and frolicking in the waters of both ponds. They slipped while playing and fell in an area in the old pond that had deep waters and started drowning.

All three were dead by the time the local people rushed and fished them out.

“Our sons had gone out to play around 9.30am. They went to the new pond that has been excavated in our locality. We do not know how they slipped and fell in the old pond that functions as an outlet for the drains in the area,” said Gopal Yadav, father of Ayush and Piyush.

Jamhor station house officer (SHO) Pramod Kumar said the police reached the spot after getting information about the incident. The bodies have been sent for postmortem. A case of unnatural death has been registered.