Two drown in waterfall in Jajpur, tourist goes missing while taking bath in Puri sea

Jajpur/Puri Aug 23 (PTI) Two persons drowned in a waterfall in Odisha's Jajpur district, while a tourist went missing while taking a bath at Puri sea beach on Saturday, police said.

While the body of one person has been recovered in Jajpur district, search efforts are still underway for the other.

The deceased person has been identified as Shambhu Pradhan (22) of Kanjiapal village. The missing youth is Manas Mahanta, an engineer from Bandhagaon-Koil village.

According to reports, Shambhu, Manas and another friend, identified as Buturu Mahanta, went to take a bath in the seasonal waterfall near their village around 10 am. Shambhu and Manas jumped into the waterfall while Buturu stayed back. When the duo did not return after a long time, Buturu immediately alerted family members and villagers, police said.

A team from the Sukinda Fire Service rushed to the spot and managed to recover the body of Shambhu.

Later, a team from the Bhuban Fire brigade from neighbouring Dhenkanal district also joined the rescue efforts. However, there was no trace of Manas so far.

The site of the tragedy lies in the Mahagiri hill range, under the Sukinda forest division. The waterfall, which plunges nearly 300 feet into a deep and treacherous pit, has been identified as hazardous.

A tourist from Hyderabad went missing while taking a bath at the Puri sea beach on Saturday, police said.

The missing tourist has been identified as Vikash Chande from Hyderabad.

Despite a search by life guards and the fire service personnel, there was no trace of Vikash, they added. PTI COR AAM AAM RG