A 16-year-old Indian American boy jumped off the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, according to his parents and US Coast Guard officials as reported by news agency PTI. The incident took place at around 5pm on Wednesday, the PTI report further said. The teenager's bicycle, phone and bag were found on the bridge, officials said. He was studying in Class 12. This is the fourth such incident involving an Indian American, said community leader Ajai Jain Bhutoria.
The US Coast Guard officials carried out a two-hour search and rescue operation after they saw "a human" jumping from the bridge, PTI reported. They added there is littlee reason to believe that the boy is still alive.
Bridge Rail Foundation, a non-profit organisation that tracks such incidents and works towards stopping people from choosing the Golden Gate bridge to die by suicide, said nearly 2,000 such cases have been reported since he bridge openes in 1937. It further said that 25 people jumped from the bridge last year.
The California government is working to create a 20-foot-wide iron mesh on both sides of the 1.7-mile (2.73 km) bridge. However, the project that was scheduled to be completed by January this year is running behind schedule and its construction cost has jumped from 137.26 million euros (Rs 120 crore) to nearly 386.64 million euros (Rs 339 crore). Work on this project started in 2018.
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the one-mile-wide strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
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