Two labourers of a brick kiln unit accidentally drowned in an irrigation canal at Madhiripuram village in Tirumalayapalem mandal on Tuesday.
The deceased were identified as Suresh, 25, of Polepalli in Khammam rural mandal, G Laxminarayana, 22, of Tiruvuru in Krishna district of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
Sources said that Suresh accidentally slipped into the canal of the Bhakta Ramadasu Lift Irrigation Project near Madhiripuram while walking along the canal bund in the afternoon.
As he raised an alarm, his co-worker Laxminarayana ventured into the canal to rescue him. But both were swept away by the gushing waters in the irrigation canal.
Their bodies were retrieved from the canal by the local youth a little later. Tirumalayapalem police registered a case and launched a detailed investigation into the drowning incident.