Tragic drowning at Drumahoe

Here is his first hand account of a terrible tragedy.

I arrived on the scene as two members of Foyle Search and Rescue held the boy's limp body up in the fast flowing water, just a couple of dozen yards up-river from the beautiful Faughan bridge. They struggled to catch a yellow rope that was thrown to them, as the surging river carried it quickly downstream.

Staff and customers from the Travellers Inn bar that overlooks the Faughan joined other local residents on the stone bridge, gazing in shock at the scene unfolding below them.

Men and women raised their hands to their faces and covered their mouths in a communal gesture of horror. Normally this is one of the most scenic parts of the river Faughan but now it had been transformed into a scene of tragedy. The watching people did not know whose body was in the water but they knew it was a child. The residents who gathered on the bridge also knew this part of the river – made famous in the song 'Along The Faughanside' that is taught to all children at Drumahoe Primary School. And they knew its dangers, especially here behind the bar, where the river forms a deep, swirling pool that can be treacherous when the water rises.

They knew the young person being held in the river was someone's son – but no-one at this stage knew who the parents were. A local man had tried in vain to rescue the boy and, before being taken to hospital himself to be treated for an injured foot, told people that he did not recognise him.

They watched in hope, rather than expectation, as the rescuers brought the boy to the bank where attempts were made to resuscitate him but after a lengthy bid to administer CPR, they moved back from the body.

A police officer, in answer to one woman who asked the question in everyone's mind said: "People have been in water for ten minutes before, and survived, but just judging from the way they have tried CPR and looking at him now, it looks like he hasn't survived."

As police moved the watching crowd back, the young boy's body was covered by a blanket.

Residents desperately sought to try to establish who he was. Many people produced mobile phones, perhaps just double-checking that they knew where their own children were, or perhaps just because they wanted to feel the reassurance of talking to them.

I phoned my two stepsons, even though I knew where they were. I thought they might know the boy, but I think too there was also a little twinge of guilt, caused by relief that it wasn't them in the water. I think everyone there probably felt the same, all they could talk about was the fact that some poor parents were going to get the most awful news.

It later transpired that the tragic teenager was Kyle Bonnes, who lived in nearby Tullyally, and who had been fleeing from police when he entered the river.

The effect on the Tullyally community, especially its young people was devastating.