BARIPADA: In a tragic incident, two students drowned during an immersion ceremony of Lord Ganesh in the Subarnarekha canal under Laxmiposi outpost of Mayurbhanj district on Friday. Two others narrowly escaped as they were rescued on time.
The deceased were identified as Tannmaie Behera (16) of Singudia village and Dibyajoti Sahu (16) of Musabani village. Both belonged to Odisha Adarsha School in Rasgovindpur. The two rescued students were from Ranibhol Adarsha Vidyalaya School.
All of them were studying in a coaching centre at Laxmiposi and lived in the nearby mess. The incident occurred when the four went to the canal to immerse the idol of Lord Ganesh around 12 noon. Baripada SDPO Sujit Kumar Pradhan said the four students slipped into deep water while immersing the idol.
While Behera and Sahu drowned, the other two were rescued as they knew swimming.
Upon receiving information, the ODRAF and fire fighters reached the spot and launched a search operation. The staff of Subarnarekha irrigation project also released water from the canal to aid in the rescue efforts.
The bodies of the two students were later recovered and identified. Laxmiposi police informed the deceased’s parents, seized the bodies and will send them to PRM MCH for postmortem.