HARIPUR: Four persons, including a boy and his two sisters, drowned while bathing in Tarbela and Khanpur lakes here, police and rescue officials said on Sunday.

Police and rescue sources said a family hailing from Alooli village had gone to the Tarbela Lake for picnic, and they all started bathing to beat the heat.

In the meantime, a minor boy and his two sisters slipped into deep waters and drowned. They were identified as nineyear-old Faizan, and Anees Fatima, 13, and Liaba Bibi, 12.

Eyewitnesses and police said local divers fished out the bodies and shifted them to Haripur Trauma Centre.

Also, a man drowned in the Khanpur Canal, police and rescue sources said on Sunday.

It was the seventh drowning incident during the last two weeks despite a ban imposed on swimming and bathing in the dams and canals by the district administration.

Police and rescue workers quoted eye-witnesses as saying that some men were bathing in the left bank canal of the Khanpur Dam when one of them drowned after his foot stuck in some underwater plant.

The rescue workers fished out the body and shifted it to Khanpur Hospital, where the deceased was identified as Tariq Mehmood, 31, a resident of Khalabat Township.

Meanwhile, a man arrested on robbery charges escaped from police custody, officials said on Sunday.

Khanpur police officials said they had arrested Raja Ehtesham, a resident of Jabb village, for committing two robberies, one in his native village and the other in Sanjliala village, on Saturday. They said he was lodged in Pind Muneem police post.

The police said the accused was handcuffed, but freed himself and escaped from the police post on Saturday evening when the policemen were busy with the security duty of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who was staying in his Makhniyal residence here. Correspondent