Two priests of a Shiva temple in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh were found dead on Tuesday morning, police said.

The deceased have been identified as Jagdish (55) and Shersingh (45) of Pagauna village, they said.

According to the police, a youth of the same village, identified as Murari alias Raju, had stolen some equipment belonging to the priests two days ago.

The youth, a drug addict, was pulled up for his act, they said.

The police suspect that the youth hacked the two priests to death.

'He was seen moving around with a sword was spotted by the villagers. They caught him about 2kms from the scene of crime,' a police official said.

'The youth is a drug addict. He was under the influence of drugs and in a naked state when caught by the villagers,' he added.

Taking a note of the incident, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has directed senior officials to take strict action against the culprit and submit a detailed report.