nTwo teenager school students from capital city drowned in Mahanadi River at holy town of Sirpur in Mahasamund district on Saturday.
Superintendent of Police, Mahasamund Jitendra Shukla informed that two of the student from a school picnic team identified as Khushdeep Sandhu and Aman Shukla were drowned.
The duo was among 170-member school team which came to the town for picnic, the official said. The deceased were students of class 9 in Bharatmata Higher Secondary of the state capital, he added.
“Even though there was prohibitory signboard at the bank of the river near Gandheshwar Mahadeo temple the both went deep in the accident prone river”, police said.
When the duo began drowning their classmates began shouting but till the locals attempted to save them they were already drowned, police said.
The bodies of both of them were later fished out with the help of locals and police were called, police said.
After post mortem the bodies had been handed over to the families of the deceased, police added.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Bhupesh Bagel expressed grief over the incident and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh for the families of both the deceased.