CHANGSHA - Five students drowned while swimming in a reservoir in Central China's Hunan province on Thursday, authorities said Friday.

Residents living near the Chetianjiang Reservoir in Wentang township of Xinhua county retrieved the boys' bodies around 3:30 pm Thursday after one villager spotted the students swimming in the reservoir before they disappeared, according to a spokesman from the county's Communist Party of China (CPC) committee.

The witness had tried to persuade the boys not to swim in the reservoir, where swimming is banned, but the children swam in it anyway, the spokesman said.

The boys were confirmed to be second-grade students at a local junior high school.

Local police and education authorities are investigating the case.