The number of water-related deaths during the UK heatwave has risen to 12 after the bodies of two teenage boys were recovered in Kent and Oxford. Emergency workers recovered the body of a 14-year-old boy from the River Thames near Donnington Bridge, Oxford, at about 5.30pm on Wednesday. Thames Valley police said the boy's family had been informed and that his death was being treated as unexplained but not suspicious.
The body of another boy was recovered from a pond in Swanscombe, Kent. His death was also not being treated as suspicious. There have been several similar deaths thought to be linked to outdoor swimming in the record-breaking heatwave, during which temperatures climbed to 35.1C at Heathrow and Kew Gardens, west London, 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 said hot weather is expected to continue in the coming days before easing over the weekend. A yellow heat health alert has been issued by the UK Health Security Agency for eastern and south-east England and London, running from 4pm on Thursday until 8pm on Saturday.
The UKHSA said water-related incidents could increase and warned of risks from cold-water shock and drowning. Recent days have seen young people die in water-related incidents in Lincoln, Halifax, Rotherham, Warwickshire, Cheshire, Farnborough and Lancashire, along with a man in his 60s in Cornwall and a woman in her 70s in Wales.
Among the victims were Declan Sawyer, 15, who died at Swanholme Lakes, Lincoln, on Sunday; a 72-year-old woman at West Angle Bay beach, Pembrokeshire; a 13-year-old boy understood to be Reco Puttock at Leadbeater Dam, Halifax; a teenage girl at Kingsbury Water Park, Warwickshire; a man in his 60s at Tregirls Beach, Padstow; a teenager at Rother Valley Country Park, Rotherham; and a 12-year-old boy, Junior Slater, in the River Ribble, Lancashire. On Wednesday, Cheshire police said the body of a 17-year-old boy had been found in Pickmere Lake, Northwich.
