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Two Saudi students have lost their lives in an attempt to rescue children caught in a powerful river current in the US, last Friday.

Theeb Alyami, 27, and Jaser Alrakah, 25 saw a mother trying to rescue her two children who were being swept away at a river in Massachusetts.

Several adults tried to help them until Alyami and Alrakah plunged into the river in an attempt to rescue the children, Saudi media reported on Wednesday.

They unfortunately lost their lives in the rescue effort, but the two children were saved.

"On Friday my brother and his cousin were on a picnic next to the river when they saw a mother in distress trying to save her children, who now because of my brother and cousin are alive and have already been discharged from the hospital," a brother of one of the victims told Saudi newspaper Sabaq.

"The American media are referring to them as heroes."

Alyami and Alrakah were both students at local universities and were due to graduate next month. 

Their families had not seen them for three years, and were waiting for them to return home after their graduation.

The embassy in the US is preparing to repatriate their bodies back to their families in the southern Saudi region of Najran.