An 18-year-old Indian high school student drowned in a pond in New Jersey after he went into the frigid water to retrieve a soccer ball for children playing nearby, according to media reports.

Clinten G. Ajit, who hailed from Niranam in Kerala, went into Hardcastle Pond in New Milford on Friday around 7pm to retrieve the soccer ball and apparently drowned after he suddenly went underwater, a digital news content provider, northjersy.com, reported.

However NJ.com, another digital newspaper quoting police, said emergency officers responded to a call at 7.15pm that someone went swimming in the pond and did not return. First responders recovered Ajit’s body in about three hours.

“The water went up to his waist. Then it went up to his neck. Then he had his whole, full body in the water,” CBS news channel quoted 10-year-old Sam Rueda, who saw the tragedy unfold with his family, as saying.