Teenage boy is 10th person to die in open water during hot weather

A teenage boy has died swimming in a pond - the 10th person to die in open water during the record-breaking UK heatwave.

Police were called to Galley Hill Road in Swanscombe, Kent, at 2.55pm on Wednesday following a report of concern for a swimmer in a pond.

Officers attended along with the Kent Fire and Rescue Service and the South East Coast Ambulance Service, where the body of a teenage boy was recovered.

His death is not being treated as suspicious at this time and a report will be prepared for the coroner.

It comes as a string of youngsters died in water-related incidents over the past few days as the UK saw record-breaking temperatures for May in parts of the country.

One of them was 12-year-old Junior Slater, who died while swimming with friends in the River Ribble at Ribchester on Tuesday.

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The first reported incident involved Declan Sawyer, 15, whose body was recovered after he got into difficulty after entering Swanholme Lakes in Lincoln on Sunday.

On Monday, a 13-year-old boy died after getting into difficulty at Leadbeater Dam in West Yorkshire, while the body of a teenage girl was recovered on the same day at Kingsbury Water Park in Warwickshire.

South Yorkshire Police said the body of a teenager had been recovered from the water at Rother Valley Country Park, Rotherham, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

A body has been found in the search for a teenage boy who was last seen swimming at Hawley Lake on the Hampshire-Surrey border on Tuesday afternoon - while on Wednesday, Cheshire Police said the body of a 17-year-old boy was found after he went missing in Pickmere Lake in Northwich.

On Sunday, a 72-year-old woman died after being pulled from the water at West Angle Bay beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

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The following day, a man in his 60s died of cardiac arrest after entering the sea at Tregirls Beach in Padstow to help two family members who were in difficulty, Devon and Cornwall Police said.

In Ireland, another teenager died while swimming in the sea at a beach in County Dublin on Sunday.

The RNLI has warned of the "very real risk" of swimming in open water during the heatwave, with Steve Instance, the water safety lead for the charity, insisting it remains "very much winter temperatures" in UK waters.

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