A 24-year-old student from Visakhapatnam, V Anudeep, who was pursuing an MS degree at Deakin University in Australia, drowned in a lake in Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon.

Anudeep was a resident of Kapparada of Visakhapatnam and had gone to Australia to pursue his degree in February this year.

His father V Krishnamurthy, who works for Oriental Insurance in Visakhapatnam, said that Anudeep had last come home in mid-June and returned to Australia in July.

The New Indian Express reported that he had gone with his four friends to a forested area in Melbourne’s outskirts and drowned while swimming in the lake with two of his friends.

Anudeep was a good swimmer. But while his friend was shooting a video, he went into deep water and drowned.

It was reported that temperature was low and some ice pieces were floating on the water. His body was recovered after a couple of hours from the lake.

On Wednesday night, his parents living in Kapparada received the news when Anudeep’s friends in Australia informed his family that they tried to rescue him but he died.

His family had requested the government to contact the Australian embassy to arrange for the body to be sent back to India by Saturday.

“We don’t know what happened exactly but we lost our brother, who had gone Australia with many hopes,” Anudeep’s sister Anusha told Deccan Chronicle.