Murari Lal rescued 16 schoolchildren from a flooded underpass.

A Delhi Police Head Constable with ace swimming skills threw a lifeline to 16 panic-stricken children trapped in a school bus in a flooded South Delhi underpass.

Head Constable Murari Lal, 39, carried the children aged between six and nine years to safety with some help from colleagues, after Wednesday’s heavy rain.

The water in the underpass had started entering the bus through the windows. The seventy children inside, many of whom had climbed on to the seats, were in great distress. Two teachers were also in the bus, helpless, as the water was rising at the Pul Prahladpur underpass on Mehrauli-Badarpur Road.

Police control room van Kite-63 entered the scene, with Assistant Sub Inspector Chokhe Lal at the wheel and Murari Lal ready to swing into action. “We reached the site 16 minutes after a distress call was made. The route was clogged due to water logging and we had to take a detour,” says the head constable.

Once ASI Chokhe Lal had parked, the Head Constable handed over his service revolver to his colleague and jumped into the water. “There was no time to take off the uniform but I removed my shoes to be able to swim. When I looked through the window, the children were crying. The first couple of minutes were spent soothing nerves and then I got in, taking out the children one at a time,” he says. ASI Chokhe Lal could not swim, but he stood in neck deep water to help carry the children over his head to safety.