In a heart-wrenching incident, two ITI students went missing after being washed away in a water current at Kathapala Bandha on the Baripada city outskirts this morning.
According to the information, the mishap occurred during the Vishwa Karma idol immersion in the river.
They were identified as Thakur Soren of Bhandan village under the Badampahar area and Bhagya Prakash Patra of Bandagaon village under the Tato area.
What worried all concerned was that they parted ways and participated in the immersion event when a teacher had taken them to medical for treatment on their complaint.
While immersing the idol, Bhagya Prakash reportedly slipped into deep water. To save him, Thakur jumped into the water. But as the luck would have it, both students were washed away in the water current.
On being informed, Fire personnel reached the spot and started a search operation.
Later both of them were declared dead.