Kerala-born teen drowns trying to retrieve football from pond in US
Darpan News Desk IANS, 25 Apr, 2022 11:18 AM
An 18-year-old Kerala-born teen has died while trying to retrieve a football that had fallen into a frigid pond in New Jersey, according to media reports.
The body of Clinten Ajit was pulled from the depths of the pond in New Milford on Friday night by an emergency service diver, the Daily Voice reported.
He "was apparently doing a good deed" when he went into the pond at about 7 p.m. to get the ball, the news outlet said.
An emergency service worker quoted by it said, "Some kids accidentally kicked a soccer ball in the water and (he) said he would get it for them. He didn't know how to swim and never came back up".
New Milford Mayor Michael Putrino said: "There's no words that can describe the pain that this family is going through right now. Our hearts are broken. Our town will be praying for (them) tonight."
According to a Gofundme fundraiser set up for his family, Ajit was born in Niranam, Kerala, and immigrated to the US in 2012.
He was in the final year of high school and had been set to study criminal justice at a local university.
On Friday evening, the temperatures were down to about 12 degrees Celsius in New Milford, which is about 35 km from New York City.
Ten-year-old Sam Rueda, who witnessed the tragedy told the CBS2 New York TV: "The water went up to his waist, then it went up to his neck, then he had his whole, full body in the water."
One person was killed and another injured during a shooting which took place in the parking lot of a store in the US state of Pennsylvania, authorities said.
Six Sikhs were killed in the August 5, 2012, attack in which four people, including a police officer, were injured and one person died last year from the wounds sustained in the shooting.
U.S.-based Novavax partnered with the Serum Institute of India to apply in the three countries, and plans later this month to also seek the World Health Organization review needed to be part of the COVAX global vaccine program.
The Biden administration has kept in place travel restrictions that have severely curtailed international trips to the U.S., citing the spread of the delta variant of the virus. Under the rules, non-U.S. residents who have been to China, the European Schengen area, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa and India in the prior 14 days are prohibited from entering the U.S.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control last week warned the Delta variant of the virus is so contagious, vaccinated people who do get infected could be just as big a risk to others as people who aren't vaccinated.
