Kolkata, May 21 (IANS): A sudden gush of heavy nor'wester took a toll on two rowers performing sculling at the Rabindra Sarobar Lake, also known as Dhakuria Lake, in south Kolkata on Saturday evening.

The case of drowning took place at 5.30 p.m., when one of the five crew boats tumbled following a sudden gush of heavy wind. That boat was carrying four rowers. The water depth of the lake at the point where the boat tumbled was around 20 metres.

While two of the four rowers managed to swim to the shore, two others went missing. The divers from the state disaster management department fished out the bodies after a three-hour long operation. Both the deceased, identified as Pushpen Sandhukha and Sourodeep Chatterjee, were in their teens.

Meanwhile, three more nor'wester and lighting related deaths have been reported from West Bengal, two in East Burdwan district and one in Hooghly district.

The sudden nor'wester on Saturday also affected normal flight services at the Kolkata airport for about an hour.