NRI brothers die in frozen lake in UK

Two NRI brothers died, and a third narrowly escaped after they fell through the ice on a frozen lake in the UK's Leicester city while trying to scatter the ashes of a relative.

The three were pulled from the icy water by onlookers and the emergency services yesterday in a lake Watermead Country park. A fourth man was with them at the time, but did not fall through the ice into the water, police said.

Paramedics and firefighters desperately tried to revive the two rescued men at the scene, but they died later in hospital.

Police were uncertain why the brothers, accompanied by another man, had gone so far out in to the lake. Early reports said that the men, said to be Gujaratis, had been performing the Hindu ceremony of scattering a relative's ashes in a water body.

However, the police cast doubt on the suggestion. Inspector Andy Cox, from Leicestershire police, said, "Whether they thought it was part of the land, I don't know; it's too early in the inquiry to find out why they were so far out into the lake."

The men shouted for help but none of them appeared to be able to speak English. Watermead Country Park is a 140-acre wetland reserve with more than 12 lakes and smaller ponds.

Cox said, "You do not know how thick the ice is. It is very patchy in places."