Six people have now died in Britain’s waters during this May heatwave as police discover a body in a search for a 12-year-old boy.
A body was discovered in the River Ribble at Ribchester, Lancashire, on Tuesday evening following an extensive search operation for a schoolboy.
The youngster had been swimming with friends when he ran into difficulty at around 2pm.
Police officers and firefighters equipped with underwater search capabilities scoured the area until recovering a body from the water around 7.50pm.
“We believe it to be the body of the missing boy,” Lancashire Police said – though formal identification is still yet to be completed.
Ann-Marie Ruddock, who has lived in Ribchester since 1991, described the stretch of river as a “hotspot” attracting visitors from outside the area.
She told the BBC: “Locals are well aware of the dangers of the river and they tend to keep away from it. It’s nightmare scenario.”
A body was discovered in the River Ribble at Ribchester, Lancashire, on Tuesday evening
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The tragedy follows a devastating Bank Holiday weekend that claimed multiple young lives.
Declan Sawyer, aged 15, drowned at Swanholme Lakes in Lincoln on Sunday.
On Monday, a 13-year-old boy identified locally as Reco Puttock was pronounced dead after being pulled from Leadbeater Dam near Halifax in West Yorkshire.
A teenage girl’s body was retrieved from Kingsbury Water Park in Warwickshire the same day.
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The tragedy follows a devastating Bank Holiday weekend that claimed multiple young lives
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South Yorkshire Police confirmed that a teenage boy’s body was recovered from Rother Valley Country Park in Rotherham during the early hours of Tuesday morning.
A man in his 60s also died on Monday at Tregirls Beach near Padstow in Cornwall after suffering cardiac arrest while attempting to rescue two family members who were struggling in the water.
A man has also died in the Republic of Ireland – and emergency services are still searching for a teenage boy reported missing at Pickmere Lake in Cheshire.
Tuesday marked the hottest May day ever recorded in both England and Wales.
Tuesday marked the hottest May day ever recorded in both England and Wales
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Kew Gardens in south west London registered a scorching 35.1C, surpassing Monday’s previous record of 34.8C at the same location.
Cardiff’s Bute Park reached 32.9C, exceeding the Welsh record set just 24 hours earlier.
Met Office meteorologist Alex Burkill described the conditions as “exceedingly hot” and “exceptional”.
He added: “For any time of the year it’s hot, but for May in particular it is still meteorological spring. In terms of how ground-breaking, how historic it is it’s very similar to that first time that we reached 40C.
“The fact that we’ve exceeded the May temperature by such an amount really is extraordinary and quite worrying.”
Wednesday is expected to bring some relief as cloud cover and easterly winds move across northern and eastern England.