Patna, Jun 29 (PTI) : Two students of an elite private school were found dead on Sunday inside a water body in Bihar’s Nalanda district, triggering protests by locals who vandalised the institute’s premises and allegedly manhandled the school director, police said.

Nalanda police station in-charge Sunil Kumar said the bodies of Ravi Kumar and Sagar Kumar, students of Devendra Public School, were fished out from a water-filled ditch near Nirpur village located close to the school.

The incident sparked off protest by the local people who torched a van and set two rooms of the school on fire using a cooking gas cylinder, Kumar said. Six policemen were injured while trying to quell the mob, he said.

DPS School Director Devendra Prasad said both the students had left the school premises without informing the authorities, following which a search was launched to track their whereabouts. The bodies were later found lying in the ditch.

The protesters also manhandled Prasad and pelted stones on policemen who had reached there, Kumar said.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) N K Rajak reached the spot and tried to pacify the mob who refused to hand over the bodies to the police.