The bodies of two teenage boys have been recovered in separate incidents in Kent and Oxford, bringing the total number of water-related deaths during the UK heatwave to 11. Emergency workers retrieved the body of a 14-year-old boy from the River Thames near Donnington Bridge, Oxford, at around 5.30pm on Wednesday. Thames Valley Police confirmed his family had been informed and that the death is being treated as 'unexplained but not suspicious'.
The other boy's body was recovered from a pond in Swanscombe, Kent, with police also treating his death as non-suspicious. These incidents follow a series of drownings believed to be linked to outdoor swimming during record-breaking temperatures, which reached 35.1C at Heathrow and Kew Gardens on Tuesday.
The Royal Life Saving Society UK has urged the public to 'stop and think' before entering water, warning that warmer weather leads to an increase in accidental drownings. The Met Office forecasts continued hot weather in the coming days, easing over the weekend, while a yellow heat health alert from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) covers eastern and south-east England and London from Thursday to Saturday.
The UKHSA cautioned that water-related incidents could rise and highlighted risks from cold-water shock and drowning. Recent deaths include a 15-year-old boy at Swanholme Lakes, Lincoln; a 13-year-old boy at Leadbeater Dam, Halifax; a teenage girl at Kingsbury Water Park, Warwickshire; a man in his 60s at Tregirls Beach, Cornwall; and a 72-year-old woman at West Angle Bay beach, Pembrokeshire. Other victims were found at Rother Valley Country Park, Hawley Lake, the River Ribble, and Pickmere Lake.
