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A 17-year-old girl died after 13 female students fell into a septic tank while cleaning it at a madrasa in Rajasthan’s Deeg district on Friday, police said.

Police have identified the deceased as Rohin, a resident of Sakras village in Haryana. Police took custody of the body and sent it for postmortem.The 12 injured students were admitted to a nearby hospital and are undergoing treatment. The incident took place at Mill Madrasa in the Gopalgarh area, where students were allegedly assigned cleaning work.

Police have identified the deceased as Rohin, a resident of Sakras village in Haryana. Police took custody of the body and sent it for postmortem.

A staff member from the madrasa management, requesting anonymity, said that a slab covering the septic tank on the premises had collapsed a few days earlier.

“The tank was subsequently cleaned using machines, but some debris remained in one section. On Friday evening, a few female students reportedly volunteered to remove the remaining debris and entered the tank. They are believed to have lost consciousness after being exposed to toxic gases inside the tank,” he said.

He added that, in an attempt to rescue the first students, other female students entered the tank one after another without any protective or safety equipment.

Hearing the students’ cries for help, madrasa staff rushed to the spot and rescued them. The injured students were immediately shifted to hospital.

District collector Mayank Manish and superintendent of police Sharan Gopinath reached the site soon after receiving information about the incident and inspected the scene.

Gopinath said assigning female students to carry out such hazardous work amounted to serious negligence. He said strict legal action would be taken against those found responsible for the incident.