5 young volunteers drown during Nanganallur temple ceremony

CHENNAI: Five young temple priests drowned in the Dharmalingeshwarar temple pond in Nanganallur on Tuesday while performing the Theerthavari ceremony.

The Panguni Uthiram festival has been taking place in the Dharmalingeshwarar temple since March 26 and on Tuesday morning the Natarajar Theerthavari ceremony was held in the temple and many priests from the neighbourhood temples participated in the ceremony.

Police said around 25 priests were lifting the idol and were walking in the temple pond for the Theerthavari ceremony and during that time two priests who went to the deep part of the pond were unable to come up and soon three other priests went to help and all the give of them drowned in the pond which was about 20-feet deep.

Soon, the Palavanthangal police and the fire and rescue team rushed to the spot and began the rescue operations. Later, the rescue team managed to take the bodies of Surya (24), Raghavan (18), Vaniesh (20) of Nanganallur and Raghav (22) of Madipakkam and Yogeshwaran (23) of Keezhkattalai police said and their bodies were sent to the Chromepet government hospital for post-mortem.

Sources said this is the first time that the idol was brought to the temple pond for performing Theerthavari in the Dharmalingeshwarar pond. The Palavanthangal police have registered a case and are inquiring with the temple administration.