Patna, June 28 (IANS) The director of a private residential school in Bihar's Nalanda district was beaten to death by villagers on Sunday after the bodies of two missing students were found in a pond nearby, police said.

Devender Prasad, director of the Devender Prasad Sinha (DPS) School in Nirpur, about 100 km from Patna, was beaten to death by angry villagers, district police official Sanjay Kumar said.

Both students -- Sagar Kumar, 10, and Ravi Kumar, 11, -- went reported missing on Saturday from the school hostel and their bodies were found on Sunday.

"Prasad was brutally beaten with bamboos and iron rods in the presence of hundreds of people. He died on his way to a hospital," another police official said.

According to police officials, the school director was forcibly dragged from the school premises and brought on to the road, where he was attacked.

Villagers also torched a school bus and another vehicle in the school premises.

Bihar Police chief P.K. Thakur has asked a deputy inspector general (DIG)-rank official to probe the incident.

"Police will take action against those found guilty," Additional Director General of Police (Headquarters) Sunil Kumar said.