A man fell into a water tank but managed to swim back to surface during a religious ceremony.

A Hindu organisation had had organised a month-long festival to worship Hindu deity Lord Ganesha in Tiptur in South India.

On November 28, to conclude the festival they took a huge clay idol of the deity to a lake in the city to immerse it in a specially constructed water tank.

The plan was to gently lower the idol into the tank with a crane and a volunteer went down with the idol to ensure everything went right. But before he could get back to safety, the crane cables snapped and the man went down with the idol.

But he managed to surface quickly and was pulled up.

An eyewitness Ram Murthy said: “He was lucky the idol did not topple and pin him down. But organisers should have taken better safety precautions.”