HOUSTON: An Indian couple was killed when their sports utility vehicle apparently plunged into a lake near their home in Missouri city, a media report said on Friday.

Joseph Mathai (61) and his wife Leelamma Mathai (55) were planning to return to Kerala next week for a family wedding. Instead, their bodies will be returned there for burial, Houston Chronicle quoted a relative of the Mathais as saying.

Divers recovered the bodies of the couple who made a frantic call to 911 after their vehicle plunged into the lake, the report said.

According to the police, the vehicle accidentally landed into a retention lake in the Lake Shore Harbour neighbourhood early Wednesday as the couple returned home from work.

The silver Toyota Highlander was found upright in about 20 feet of water, about 40 feet from the shore near a curve in Palm Harbour near their home.

The grim discovery came after a long search that was started with a desperate 911 cell phone call at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday from a woman who screamed and repeatedly said: "Lake Shore Harbour!"

During the call, the woman repeated "the lake!," as a 911 operator asked again and again for an address and why help was needed.

Between the woman's screams for help, she appeared to be shouting in a foreign language. A man's voice could also be heard.

At the end of the 3-minute call, the sound of rushing water could be heard and then the phone went dead.

Missouri City Police Capt John Bailey said investigators used triangulation to determine that the call probably came from a vehicle in the water in one of the five lakes in the subdivision.

There were no ruts or other indications that a vehicle was in the lake, Bailey said.

Searchers and divers from the Richmond and Sugar Land fire departments spent all day Wednesday searching the lakes without result.

Last afternoon, searchers from Texas detected the vehicle using side scan sonar in a small boat. Houston divers soon confirmed that the bodies were inside the vehicle.

The victims were taken ashore to a canopy erected by investigators and were identified by family members, Bailey said.

The bodies were then taken to the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office for autopsies.

A huge tow truck later strained to pull the vehicle from the water. It will be held in a police compound until investigators determine that no foul play was involved, Bailey said, adding that there were no indications that the deaths were anything other than an accident.

The couple had worked a late shift at a company where they both worked, said Thomas George, a relative.

George said the couple's two children are being comforted by a large group of family and friends. He said they had lived in the Houston area for more than 20 years.

"They were very special people," George said. "They are strong Christians and were always close to their family."

The upscale neighbourhood surrounding the series of lakes is home to many natives of India, George said. As the search continued, neighbours stood in groups to watch.

"Last weekend they all went around singing Christmas carols," George said.

He said the couple had already purchased tickets to return to India on December 18 for the wedding of the woman's sister.

"Now those tickets will be used to send them back," he said.