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23-year-old Ajay Kumar Koyalamudi, a native of Raichur’s Sindhanur and 22-year-old Teja Koushik Voleti, a native of Ongole, drowned at Turner Falls in Oklahoma on Tuesday.
Both men were students of the University of Texas at Arlington in the US. They had travelled to Turner Falls, located 330 km away from their university, on Tuesday. Teja allegedly lost his balance at the swimming hole near the falls and fell. According to PTI, Ajay dove in, and neither emerged.
KTEN reported that a witness saw one of the two going under and tried to offer help by giving a flotation device, but it didn’t reach him.
Ajay, who was studying Construction Engineering Management, had left for Texas in December 2018 after completing his Bachelor of Civil Engineering at New Horizon College of Engineering in Bengaluru’s Marathalli, according to The New Indian Express.
Teja was an engineering student who had completed his Bachelor’s degree from Anna University, Chennai. According to reports, Teja hails from Ongole in Andhra Pradesh. He was pursuing a masters degree in Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington.
According to a report by the Associated Press, both men were not wearing life jackets and that both were not good swimmers. The police received a distress call at around 10 am on Tuesday (Central Daylight Time) that two people were in danger at Turner Falls.
The officers, who arrived at the spot, found the bodies of the two men in a pool of water about 9-10 feet deep.
Turner Falls Park announced that the swimming hole has been closed after the incident. The swimming hole, diving board and slide usually close on October 1.
The Telugu Association of America contacted the Indian High Commission in Texas to help transport the bodies to India. A GoFundMe page has also been started for the funeral expenses and to pay off their education loans.
In July, two Indians — a 27-year-old woman and a 39-year-old man — drowned at the park.