US: Indian-origin student vanishes during spring break trip in Punta Cana; Authorities launch probe

Sudiksha Konanki, a 20-year-old Indian-origin student from the University of Pittsburgh, went missing while on a spring break trip in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Washington: Sudiksha Konanki, a 20-year-old Indian-origin student from the University of Pittsburgh, has gone missing during a spring break trip in the Dominican Republic. According to a report by the New York Post, Konanki was last seen on Thursday while walking along the beach in Punta Cana, a popular resort town. 

She was traveling with a group of classmates at the time. Since her disappearance, there has been no contact or sightings, and local authorities have launched a search operation to locate her.

"Our office was contacted on Thursday evening about a missing female from Loudoun County who was with a group of other people traveling in the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana specifically," a Loudoun County Sheriff's Office spokesperson said Saturday, as per the New York Post.  

A missing person’s poster describes her as 5 feet 3 inches tall, wearing a brown bikini, with black hair and brown eyes. At the time of her disappearance, she was last seen wearing big round earrings, a metal designer anklet on her right leg, yellow and steel bracelets on her right wrist, and a multicolored beaded bracelet on her left wrist, the poster states.

In a statement, officials from the University of Pittsburgh said they are coordinating with Sudiksha Konanki's family and local authorities in Virginia to assist in the ongoing search efforts.

"University officials are in contact with Sudiksha Konanki's family as well as authorities in Loudoun County, Virginia, and we have offered our full support in their efforts to find her and bring her home safely," university spokesperson Jared Stonesifer said, according to the outlet.