Indian national saved from drowning in New Zealand dies

Wellington: An Indian national rescued from drowning in New Zealand died on Friday.

Police said Boobesh Palani, 26, who was studying in New Zealand, was rescued from the waters off Wellington Harbour on Monday by two teenaged girls and two young men.

Palani died in Wellington Hospital on Friday, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Palani's family thanked the public for their support over the last few days.

"This is a tragedy but thanks to the public's help we were able to establish Palani's identity which meant his friends were at his side for his final few days," police said.

Palani's identity was initially unknown. But a New Zealander who was attending a conference in Sri Lanka, saw the man's photo on news websites and identified him.

However, the reason for Palani being in the water has remained unknown.

One of the two teenaged girls who helped rescue Palani from the water said that he was completely submerged when she reached him.

Cousins Kelly McKay, 15, and Payge Olds, 16, were with a group of friends when they heard that Palani was in trouble.

Payge said although she no longer took swimming lessons, she soon realised that if she did not help the man would not survive.

"No one else was jumping in so I just thought, you know what, I am just going to step up and do it because we just need to help this guy before it's too late," she said.

Payge swam between 70 and 80 metres out to the drowning man, but when she reached Palani he was completely submerged.

Payge said she began to panic, so she called out to shore and two men, aged 25 and 19, swam out to help her.

Palani was eventually pulled to shore and Kelly performed CPR before emergency services arrived.