CUTTACK: A 20-year-old youth is feared to have drowned in Birupa river after the car in which he was travelling with his friend, lost control and plunged into the water body here on Wednesday night. His friend was, however, rescued by locals.
The missing youth is Udit Narayan Sau. The incident occurred near Panda Sahi within Jagatpur police limits. As per sources, Udit and his friend Ansuman Panda (21) were reportedly heavily drunk. One of them who was driving the vehicle, lost control and accidentally pressed the accelerator instead of the brake following which the car fell into the river.
Though locals managed to rescue Ansuman, Udit remained trapped in the vehicle which eventually went around 50 feet under water.
On being informed, police and fire services personnel reached the spot. As per police, Udit was an engineering student and a resident of Bhubaneswar.
The duo along with three other friends had come for dinner at a restaurant in Chauliaganj following which they had headed to a place near Fakirpur to enjoy some drinks. In the meantime, Udit and Ansuman had gone to a nearby market to buy some snacks and were returning to the spot when the incident took place, police said.
Though fire services, scuba divers and ODRAF team searched for Udit in the river, he was nowhere to be found. “The search operation is particularly challenging due to the darkness of the night and the depth of the river. We managed to bring the car out of the river but couldn’t find Udit inside it,” said a senior fire personnel. He added that the search operation would be resumed on Thursday.