A missing 13-year-old boy who is missing after he was last seen ‘in distress’ while playing in a lake on the hottest day of the year has been named by police.
Ryan Evans disappeared after getting into difficulty in Westport lake, Stoke on Trent, yesterday afternoon.
Police said two other boys, one aged 12 and the other aged 13, were able to make their way safely out the water.
A Nottinghamshire Police dive team and shoreline search groups in drysuits have been combing the extensive lake for a second day after the alarm was first raised at 4.50pm yesterday.
Police are continuing to search for missing 13-year-old Ryan Evans, of Stoke-on-Trent (pictured)
A Nottinghamshire Police dive team and shoreline search groups in drysuits have been combing the extensive Westport Lake in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
Search teams were back at the lake for a second day after the alarm was first raised at 4.50pm yesterday
Naming the local youngster, Staffordshire Police said Ryan’s family were ‘distraught and devastated’, as the search continued.
Chief Inspector John Owen said: ‘It is a lad by the name of Ryan Evans, who’s 13 years old – he is a local male.’
He added: ‘It is something no parent should ever go through.
‘We need to make sure they (the parents) find out the information before anybody else.
‘We’re giving them all the support they need. That’s my primary focus.’
Emergency crews began searching the lake this morning at 8am after it was called off late last night die to fading light
Specialist divers were also on the scene today as they resumed their search
Staffordshire Police said the underwater search was taking place in ‘extremely difficult conditions’ at one end of the lake, where a witness last spotted the boy.
It came as the heatwave, which is set to reach 91F this week, claimed two lives in two separate swimming tragedies elsewhere in Britain.
In Eastbourne, East Sussex, a woman drowned in the sea and at a lake in Nutfield, Surrey, a man in his 30s died after he struggled in the ice cold water.
Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures peaking at 86.2F (30.1C) and expected to last throughout this week.
A diver in the lake today. Police said the identities of the children are known to them and officers are in contact with the parents.
Emergency crews have this morning resumed the search at Westport Lake in north Staffordshire this morning
Specialist teams from Staffordshire Police, West Midlands Ambulance Service, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service are searching the lake
Collin Foster said his daughter was good friends with Ryan and that she had been left devastated by the news he was missing.
He said: ‘Ryan was a good lad, and very popular. He could swim but not very well.
‘My daughter is a friend of Ryan’s – they were in the same class at school. For her and her friends this is terrible.
‘My daughter and her friends all came down on Sunday for a swim.
‘I’m not 100 per cent sure if they all went swimming, but I know some of them came back yesterday.
A police cordon at Westport Lake in Staffordshire. Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures peaking at 86.2F (30.1C) and expected to last throughout this week
‘I told my daughter I didn’t want her swimming in there though as it was too dangerous, there’s currents under the water.
‘She had a dance lesson on Monday which is the only reason why she didn’t go back with them.
‘She went to school today, but she’s being crying all night.. It’s terrible.
‘As a parent I can’t put it into words really. Thank god it’s not one of my children. It’s so upsetting.
‘This has affected my daughter and her friends badly – we’re devastated, and the school is as well.’
Two children managed to save themselves from the lake, pictured, but one is still missing
Specialist underwater teams are carrying out searches again this morning, after the hunt was called off last night due to fading light
‘One of the other parents told me that the boys did come to the lake quite regularly when it was sunny.
‘He was a very popular boy and nice – that’s all I can say really.’
The lake’s size and underwater conditions have presented difficulties in which to carry out the operation, the officer said.
‘The divers are going to be working in murky conditions.
‘Speaking to local fishermen here, it’s extremely reedy and weedy at the bottom, they’re working in extremely difficult conditions.’
Yesterday police were called to Mercer’s Lake in Nutfield, Surrey, at 6.30pm when eyewitnesses spotted a man getting into difficulties in the water.
He was said to be 100 metres from the edge of the lake when he started to struggle in the freezing water.
Up to 50 people watched as the man, who was trying to cool off, drowned in the lake, according to witnesess.
One man who tried to save the victim today visited the site with friends to lay pink roses on the water in tribute.
They wrote ‘RIP Ed’ on the sand and said the drowned man was just two weeks short of his 31st birthday. He had two children and was expecting another.
They refused to give his surname. They did tell reporters that the nearest life-saving ring was on the opposite bank, 100 yards across the water.
Speaking of the events surrounding the drowning, one of his friends who did not want to be named, said some bystanders did not step in to help when he started struggling in the water.
Yesterday police were called to Mercer’s Lake in Nutfield, Surrey, at 6.30pm when eyewitnesses spotted a man getting into difficulties in the water
‘There were around 30 teenagers on the pontoon about 40 metres out in the water and another 15 or so on the bank.
‘They were laughing, splashing, drinking, jumping in the water and having a good time.
‘When Ed started struggling I jumped in and swam out to help, I was the only one. I got to him but he started to drag me under so I dived under water and swam away so I didn’t drown.’
The group did not make it clear why their friend had gone in the water, whether to cool off or try to warn the teenagers about the dangers of what they were doing. He had been drinking, according to his friends.
The lake in the old sand pit is up to 40 metres deep in places and still has the remnants of old quarrying machinery in the bottom of it, which could not be removed when it was decommissioned.
It is understood that the depth of the water is why it took divers so long to retrieve the body, which happened around three hours after the police were called.
The man was said to be 100 metres from the edge of the lake when he started to struggle in the freezing water
One of the rescuers involved in retrieving his body, Peter Faulding, CEO of Specialist Search International told of the task facing his team: ‘I went into the water to where he was last seen which was around 100 metres away from the edge.
‘I used high frequency sonar equipment and found the man. The SGI divers then went in to recover the man and brought him onto land.’
Surrey Police said his death is being treated as unexplained, although it was not believed to be suspicious and there was not believed to be a third party involved.
Earlier in the day officers said there had been reports of youths swimming in the lake and behaving in an ‘anti social manner’.
The victim has not yet been named and police said they are working to contact his next of kin. A post mortem is expected to be carried out in due course.
In Eastbourne police are investigating the death of a woman who drowned while swimming in the sea.
Coastguards, paramedics and police were called to the beach near the resort’s Western Parade after the victim was pulled from the water and onto the beach by rescuers who saw that she was in trouble.
An ambulance crew was escorted onto the beach and tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the woman who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Her body was transferred from the beach to a lifeboat which had been launched to assist and she was taken to the nearby lifeboat station.