Mysuru:  Two college students, who were part of 45 students and four lecturers on an excursion to Nisargadhama near Talakad, were reportedly drowned in River Cauvery yesterday morning.

The deceased students are Almeda Vijay (16) and Hemanth (17), who were pursuing  their 1st PUC at Parikrama Humanity Foundation College at Hebbal in Bengaluru.

After reaching the river yesterday morning, six students ventured into the knee-deep river for a bath, but ventured to the middle of the river where the depth was more due to soil erosion caused by the flowing river.

As soon as the six students reached the middle of the river, they began to drown and a few coracle drivers, who were present at the river, rushed to the spot and managed to pull four students into the coracle but could not rescue Almeda and Hemanth, who had drowned by then.

While the body of one Almeda was fished out yesterday, the body of Hemanth could not be traced till late in the evening and the search operation was suspended following darkness.

Talakad Police, who rushed to the spot, conducted preliminary investigation, shifted the body of Almeda to Talakad General Hospital for postmortem, informed the parents of the both the deceased about the incident and registered a case.

The body of Almeda was handed over to his parents and the operation to trace and fish out the body of Hemanth resumed this morning.