Vijayawada, May 5 (IANS): A six-year-old boy drowned after being washed away in an open drain in Vijayawada on Friday, police said.

The boy fell into the drain while playing near his house in Gurunanak Colony in the morning.

Police, the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) and the Disaster Response Force personnel launched a search for the missing boy. As the drain was almost full due to recent untimely rains, the rescue teams faced difficulty in tracing the boy.

After a search operation lasting for a few hours, the rescue workers found the body of the boy near Bharathi Nagar colony, a kilometer away from the spot where he fell into the drain. The body was pulled out and shifted to hospital.

The deceased was identified as Abhi (6).

Local people blamed negligence by the municipal authorities for the tragedy. They complained that despite repeated requests, the authorities did not lay slab to cover the drain.

The recent rains in Hyderabad had also claimed the lives of two children in similar incidents. While a girl was washed away in a drain, a boy was drowned after falling into a pit filled with rain water.