Jajpur: In a heart-wrenching incident, one of the two friends died while another went missing while taking bath in the Birupa river in Jajpur district today. While one of them was found dead, the other person remained untraced.
One Jyoti Ranjan Padhi of Pattamundai in Kendrapada district had gone to his relative’s house at Nanpur near Balichandrapur in Jajpur district on a visit along with his friend Abhijit Patra of Bhubaneswar.
Both the friends when to the Birupa river this afternoon to have a bathe. However, they were swept away by the strong current of the water and drowned.
Jyoti’s relatives rushed to the river after learning about them drowning and started a search operation with the help of the villagers. After a frantic search, they spotted Abhijit and rescued him. However, by that time he had breathed his last.
After not finding Jyoti, the villagers sought the help of the Fire services. A team of firefighters reached the spot and started a search operation. But till the filing of this reports, the youth continued to be untraceable.