In what appears to be a suicide pact, a woman and her two adult children, along with their dog, jumped off the new bridge across Nethravati river in Dakshina Kannada district, police said.
Local people on Saturday saw the three taking the plunge and tried to rescue them, but could only pull the elderly woman out of the waters, the police said.
She, however, died while being taken to hospital, they said.
Search is still on for the two others, they said.
The deceased have been identified as Kavita Mandanna (55), her son Kaushik (22) and daughter Kalpitha (20), they said.
The family belonged to Virajpet in Kodagu district, the police said.
The trio, travelling in a car, stopped the vehicle on the bridge on the Mangaluru-Bengaluru national highway and jumped into the river, along with the dog, they said, quoting eye-witnesses.
The reason behind the extreme step was not immediately known, the police added.
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