After saving the lives of two youths from drowning with his heroic efforts, 26-year-old pickup driver Sarwar Hossain drowned in a canal at Beraid of Badda in the capital yesterday.

University student Sabbir Hossain, who was bathing in the canal, said Sarwar was washing his vehicle there around noon yesterday.

Sabbir began to drown and his friend Raju Pandey dove into the canal to save him but both of them struggled with the strong current.

Children who were playing football nearby saw the situation develop and threw their football into the canal so that the drowning men could use it as a buoy.

The football kept them afloat but they could not get to the bank, Sabbir said.

Good Samaritan Sarwar, a bachelor from Barguna, then dove into the canal to save them.

Sarwar rescued the duo and also got hold of the ball.

He even handed the ball over to a 10-year-old boy who had gone into the water to retrieve it. But as soon as he handed the ball over, he was washed away by the current, said Sabbir.

Sarwar's body was recovered around 4:50pm by the divers of Fire Service and Civil Defence.

Inspector Merron Miah of Baridhara Fire Station, who led the six-member diver team, said they found the body about 100 yards away from the spot.

He said the depth of the canal where Sarwar drowned was about seven to eight feet but the place from where the body was found was 20 feet deep.

The body was handed over to his relatives.

Abdul Jalil, officer-in-charge of Badda Police Station, said apart from driving the pickup, Sarwar also worked at a shop in Gulshan. He used to live with his relatives in Natun Bazar of Dhaka.