Two California men drowned while swimming in the Colorado River near the California-Arizona border over the weekend, authorities said.
The deadly accident was first reported about 2:15 p.m. Sunday on the river near the unincorporated Mohave County, Arizona community of Topock, according to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office.
“The reporting party indicated that they had been flagged down by another boat and told that two men had gone underwater and had not resurfaced at a beach area near the Topock Gorge,” sheriff’s officials said in a written statement.
A San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department boat on the Colorado River, pictured in an undated photo.
It was later determined that the two victims were traveling in a rental pontoon with three others when the group parked the boat on a riverside beach and decided to go for a swim to cool off, officials said.
Three of them “slipped underwater and began to struggle,” according to the statement. One made it back to shallow water, but two did not resurface.
Divers from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and the Mojave County Sheriff’s Office sent divers into the water to search for the missing men.
“The two victims had been underwater for approximately 20 minutes when divers arrived on scene and were located in approximately 12 feet of water,” the statement said.
Both men were taken to the Colorado River Medical Center in Needles, where they were ultimately pronounced dead.
San Bernardino County coroner’s officials identified them as Anoop Gankidi, 31, of Montclair, and Venkata Mukkaala, 32, of Milpitas. Their manners of death were listed as accidental.
The circumstances of the drownings remained under investigation; however, impairment was not suspected to have played a role, sheriff’s officials said.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Two California men drown while swimming in Colorado River
