MYSTERY surrounds the death of a man who was recovered from the River Thames after shouting for help.

Rajkaji Lama, 44, of Audley Street, died in the early hours of January 20 after he was spotted in the river close to Sonning Lock.

At an inquest into his death, held at Reading Town Hall on Thursday (18), the coroner tried to piece together how Mr Lama, who was a manager at Subway in Friar Street. came to be in the river.

Witness Rowan Newley was sleeping in his narrowboat when he was awoken by a man shouting outside at around 4.15am. He went to investigate, and saw a man in the river, around 15 feet from the riverbank, shouting for help.

Mr Newley said in a statement: "I ran back to my boat, and grabbed a life buoy and my mobile phone. I threw the life buoy, which wasn't attached to a rope, to the man and told him to swim to it, but he made no effort to try to grab hold of it. I followed him as the was taken upstream by the current towards the weir, but I lost sight of him."

Mr Newley called the emergency services, with police, paramedics and fire and rescue services arriving on the scene a short time later.

Following an extensive search of the river, Mr Lama's body was recovered from the water. Paramedics attempted to revive him, but he was declared dead at 6.18am.

Thames Valley Police launched an investigation surrounding Mr Lama's death, and seized his phone for analyse his messages. They found a text message sent to his colleague Andy at 2.13am on the day of his death, written in Nepalese and English, which read: "I don't know how to swim in the river. I jumped in.

"End my life.

"So sorry. Tell Dina whatever I owe her I will repay in heaven."

Officers spoke with Dina Patel, who owns a number of Subway franchises in the area, who confirmed that Mr Lama had borrowed money from her in the past, but had always paid her back. Most recently, he had loaned some money from her in November 2017, and was due to pay a second instalment back at the end of January.

Other investigations into Mr Lama's finances revealed he had a number of settled and unsettled loans from banks and credit cards, and was known to gamble.

A post-mortem revealed that Mr Lama died from drowning, and had no signs of injury or trauma. A toxicology report revealed he had more than 200mg of alcohol in his blood at the time of his death.

Recording a narrative verdict, the Chief Coroner for Berkshire, Mr Peter Bedford said: "On the 20th January 2018, at approximately 04:15 hours the deceased was heard calling for help while being swept along by the current in the River Thames in darkness. He had earlier sent a text expressing thoughts of jumping into the river.

"It was subsequently confirmed that he had consumed a significant amount of alcohol. How and where he came to enter the river is not known and the question of intent is not clear.”