Bhubaneswar: A woman tourist and her son drowned while bathing in the sea in Odisha’s Puri town today.

The deceased have been identified as Kusum Gupta and her son Ankit of Ranchi in neighbouring Jharkhand.

As per reports, the incident took place while the mother-son duo along with other members of their family were taking bath in the sea near Chakratirtha Road in the Holy Town in the morning.

Kusum was swept away by a powerful wave while enjoying the bath. His son Ankit tried to rescue her and in the process they both drowned.

The other members of the family raised an alarm. Soon, a few lifeguards as well as some local fishermen rescued the mother-son duo and rushed them to a nearby hospital. However, the duo was declared dead on arrival by the doctors.

The locals, meanwhile, claimed that the administration is yet to deploy trained lifeguards on the beach near Chakratirtha Road. This could be one of the reasons behind several drowning cases reported from Chakratirtha beach, they said.