Two youths drowned yesterday off Nicaragua's Pacific coast during an evangelical baptism ceremony, an emergency team said.

Three other people undergoing baptism, at San Diego beach in the town of Villa El Carmen in the Managua province, were almost lost but emergency workers managed to rescue them.

The fatal victims, Orlando Miranda, 19, and Laureano Ramos, 15, residents of Managua's La Primavera district, belonged to the evangelical church Novena Iglesia Apostólica de la Fe en Cristo.

Witnesses told Nicaragua's TV channel 8 yesterday that the bodies had still not been found.