Nine children were killed on Sunday while two others were injured after a wall of a dilapidated house collapsed in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar, said a senior official.
The incident took place between 8:30 and 9 am near the campus of a temple during a religious programme in Shahpur village under the Rehli assembly seat, the officials said as per a PTI report.
"9 children died after being buried under the debris of a wall in Sagar. Some children are injured, and they are under treatment. All the debris has been removed from the site of the incident," said Sagar District Collector, Deepak Arya, reported ANI.
Local BJP MLA and former minister Gopal Bhargava told reporters that a programme of "Parthiv Shivling Nirman" (making Shivling out of clay) was going on under a tent near the dilapidated house and a wall collapsed and fell on the tent.
The children were sitting under the tent when the house wall collapsed due to rain, said Arya.
Two children died on the spot while seven others succumbed on the way to the hospital or on reaching the medical facility, the Collector said.
Two other children were also injured in the incident and are undergoing treatment at the district hospital, Arya said, adding that they are out of danger.
The deceased have been identified as Dhruv Yadav (12), Nitesh Patel (13), Ashutosh Prajapati (15), Prince Sahu (12), Parv Vishwakarma (10), Divyansh Sahu (12), Dev Sahu (12), Vansh Lodhi (10) and Hemant (10), according to officials, reported PTI.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav expressed anguish over the incident and announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the families of the deceased.
" I am saddened to hear the news of 9 innocent children dying due to the collapse of the wall of a dilapidated house due to heavy rains in Shahpur of Sagar district. I have directed the district administration to provide proper treatment to the injured children," said the CM in a post on X.