Periyapatna: Two youths lost their lives while they entered a lake to immerse Ganesha idol at Periyapatna at around 9.30 am today.

The youths have been identified as 16-year-old Manjunath and 27-year-old Mahesh. According to the Police and villagers, the Police had imposed a deadline of Aug. 31 for all the Ganesha idols to be immersed. Despite this, villagers of V.G. Koppalu decided to immerse the idol today.

Accordingly, a large group took the idol to Vaddarakere to immerse it. Around seven people entered the lake with the idol and Manjunath and Mahesh were at the front.

As the idol was being lowered into water, Manjunath and Mahesh were caught in strong water currents and were pulled inside. Villagers said that the water level of the lake had increased following rains. Desperate attempts to rescue the youths failed and they drowned. Their bodies were fished out later and were shifted to the Government hospital.

MLA K. Venkatesh, Additional SP N. Rudramuni, Dy.SP N.G. Bhaskar Rai, CPI H.N. Siddaiah and SI Ravikumar visited  the hospital.