A joker has reportedly drowned in a lake three days after getting engaged after his pal thought he was messing around again when he tried to get help as he sank under the water.

Matheus Rodrigues Araujo, 21, was swimming in a lake in the municipality of Tapirai in the south-eastern Brazilian state of Sao Paulo when he got cramp and was unable to swim ashore.

The fatal accident took place on the afternoon of Thursday, 26th August, just three days after his marriage proposal to girlfriend Larissa Souza.

Just minutes before he entered the water and drowned, Matheus sent a photo of the lake he was at to his fiancee. Before he visited the lake, he had been at the gym.

The police and fire brigade were called to the scene and firemen pulled Matheus from the lake. However, he was pronounced dead when he arrived at hospital.

When Larissa heard the news, she went to the scene and witnessed the rescue. She told news site G1: “It still hasn’t sunk in. A motorbike passes by and I think it’s him.

“It only sunk in when the firemen took him out of the water, where he had been for around an hour and a half.

“He was dirty with mud and they didn’t try to revive him because a lot of time had already passed.”

Larissa and Matheus had been a couple for two years and they were planning to wed in 2023.

Larissa told of the moment Matheus proposed to her. She said: “We were returning from a social event by motorbike, and the traffic was very calm. He then stopped the motorbike and asked me if I wanted to marry him in two years’ time. That’s how it went.”

Matheus helped to load lorries at a warehouse in Tapirai for a living.

His friend, Rafaela de Sousa Silva, believes that because he was a bit of a joker, the friend he went to the lake with may have initially thought he was messing around when he got into difficulty.

She told G1: “I think it took them a while to realise it was for real.”

Larissa said: “We planned our lives together and it still feels like I’m dreaming, that I’ll wake up at some point and he’ll be here.”