Six people including five school children and their ayah died when a school van carrying students of Petta Little Hearts School fell into a river at Parvathi Puthanar in Thiruvananthapuram.

Five nursery students were killed when an Omni van carrying them to school plunged into a river here today morning. The dead children were LKG, UKG and playschool students of the Little Hearts Kindergarten at Pettah. They have been identified as Achu, Ujwal, Arsha Baiju,Malavika and Jinu Asimuddin. Bindu, an ayah of the kindergarten was also killed in the mishap which occurred a little after 9.20am.

Reports quoting eyewitnesses said the van was over speeding and plunged into the Parvathi Puthanar river near the Karikakkom temple after hitting a boulder as it was giving way to another vehicle coming in the opposite direction. The mishap took place while the van was negotiating a curve on way to the school.

According to school authorities, there were 9 kids in the van besides the driver Sumesh and ayah Bindu. Though usually 11 kids use the van, two of them did not turn up today.

Four children, who were rescued from the waters, have been admitted to the KIMS, Lords, and SAT hospitals here. The driver has been admitted to the Medical College hospital and is said to be out of danger. Locals say he had surfaced from the shallow waters with a kid in hand.

Riswan and Rafiq, two students admitted to Lords are said to be out of danger. Two others Malavika and Janaki are in the intensive care unit of KIMS hospital. The condition of Janaki is out of danger.

Locals and fire force officials are still searching the river to see if there are any more kids. What made the rescue operations difficult was the fact that the water surface was covered with the African weed. The water body which used to be river is now more of a drain with the city's garbage flowing into it.