Bhubaneswar: A 20-year-old youth went missing after allegedly jumping into the swollen Kuakhai River from Tankapani Bridge in Bhubaneswar on Thursday. The search operation, which continued for around three hours on Thursday, was suspended due to darkness and heavy rain. The rescue teams resumed the search on Friday morning.

The missing youth has been identified as Bighnesh Tripathy (20), a resident of the Badagada police station area. According to preliminary information, Bighnesh left his vehicle near Tankapani Bridge and suddenly jumped into the river.

After receiving information about the incident, teams from the Badagada and Balianta police stations, along with fire services personnel, reached the spot and launched a search operation. Despite searching for nearly three hours amid heavy rain, the teams could not trace him.

The search operation was stopped late Thursday evening due to darkness and adverse weather conditions and resumed on Friday morning.

This is the third incident within a month in which a person has jumped from the bridge into the Kuakhai River. A delivery worker had jumped into the river a few days ago.