Hyderabad: Two young boys drowned in the Hussainsagar on Monday. The victims, who were brothers, had reportedly gone to the lake to take a bath along with their friends. The deceased were identified as Mohammed Khaja, 8, and 11-year-old Saleem.

The lake police and the local cops, with expert divers, tried to rescue the boys, but Khaja and Saleem died by the time help reached them. There was also mild tension over the delay in retrieving the bodies. However, the police has denied this.

The boys stayed with their parents near MS Maktha in Panjagutta. Their father, Mohammed Sharfuddin, works in a hotel. The boys did not attend school and instead went out to beg.

According to the Ramgopalpet police, the two kids were accompanied by two of their friends. All of them came to the lake at around 1 pm to take a bath. They entered the water through a small opening between Sanjeevaiah Park and Necklace Road.

“None of them knew how to swim and started drowning. Hearing their cries passersby alerted the cops. The patrol party of the Lake Police and our men rushed to the spot. A rescue operation was carried out with two expert divers and two of the kids were rescued. But the other two had drowned by then,” said Ramgopalpet sub-inspector Raghu.

A suspicious death case was registered and is being investigated. The bodies were shifted to Gandhi Hospital for post-mortem.