Fire chiefs' warning after girl found dead in water

Fire leaders have issued an urgent warning to parents and carers after a teenage girl was found dead in a body of water at a country park in north Warwickshire.

The girl,16, died after getting into difficulty in a river near Kingsbury Water Park, near Tamworth, on Monday evening.

Five more youngsters and a 60-year-old man also died in separate incidents at beauty spots across England as temperatures reached record highs.

Following the tragedies, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) have urged families to speak to young people about the dangers of entering unsupervised open water such as rivers, lakes, quarries, canals and reservoirs.

A family member, who did not wish to be identified, told the BBC the girl was a 16-year-old pupil at Kingsbury School and she could not swim.

They said the incident happened in the River Tame, which runs along the eastern edge of the park, and a teenage boy had tried to rescue the girl.

"While air temperatures may feel warm, water temperatures can remain dangerously cold enough to trigger cold water shock, which can affect breathing and movement within seconds," the NFCC warned.

Gavin Ellis, NFCC Drowning Prevention lead, said: "Cold water shock can affect anyone, no matter how confident they feel in the water. Jumping into open water can cause an involuntary gasp response, panic and loss of swimming ability almost immediately, which is why we urge people not to swim in unsupervised locations during this hot weather.

"We're asking parents and carers to have open conversations with children and teenagers about the risks, and for young people to look after each other and make safe decisions around water. These incidents can happen very quickly, but many are preventable."

The six other Bank Holiday water-related deaths were:

• Police believe a body found in the search for a 12-year-old boy who went missing while swimming in a river in Lancashire is that of the child.
• A 13-year-old boy named locally as Reco Puttock was pronounced dead after being pulled from Leadbeater Dam in Halifax, West Yorkshire.
• The body of a teenage boy was recovered from a lake in Rother Valley Country Park in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
• A man in his 60s died after running into the sea to help two relatives who had got into difficulty at Tregirls Beach near Padstow, Cornwall, police said
• At Swanholme Lakes in Lincoln, Declan Sawyer, 15, was found dead after emergency crews were called to reports of him getting into difficulty at about 14:30 on Sunday.
• In Cheshire, a body has been found in the search for a 17-year-old boy who went missing after swimming in Pickmere Lake, between Knutsford and Northwich.

Kineret Kahana, from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said anyone who fell into water should try to float instead of swim.

"Our instinct may be to start swimming but a lot of the time our body is in shock, especially if you fall into very cold water, which is really dangerous," she told BBC Radio WM.

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