24/05/2010

Lough Erne Tragedy As Teen Dies

There has been a second water-based tragedy this weekend with police divers recovering the body of a man from Lough Erne in County Fermanagh in the early hours of Monday morning.

The recovery followed reports that a 19-year-old had gone missing while swimming with friends near Castlearchdale Caravan Park.

It is understood he was last seen on Sunday afternoon. The body was found at about half-past Midnight on Monday.

The news came just hours after the body of a man was recovered from the water at Larne Lough, Magheramorne.

It was found by members of Dundalk Sub-Aqua Search & Rescue Club and the Community Rescue Service on Saturday afternoon.

The body is believed to be that of 29-year-old Graeme Nixon who has been missing since 8 May.

The boat Mr Nixon and another man were in capsized on Mill Bay. He was due to have been married this weekend.

Police, the coastguard, a specialist dive team as well as volunteers searched the surrounding sea and shoreline following his disappearance.

Mr Nixon, who was from the Larne area, was in a rowing boat which overturned in Mill Bay while he was picking whelks.

Meanwhile, a search for two men feared drowned off Helvick Head on the Waterford coast has resumed.

The alarm was raised at about 5.20pm yesterday when a local fisherman reported seeing a man in the sea some 300m from shore.

The fisherman had earlier seen two men standing up in a dinghy but by the time he got to where he had seen the man in the water, there was no sign of the man or of his companion.

A search operation was launched and the men's dinghy was found capsized with two lifejackets still attached.

An Irish Coast Guard helicopter based at Waterford had also been involved in the search, as well as about a dozen members of the Coast Guard cliff and coastal rescue team from Helvick.

The search for the two men, who are believed to be from South Tipperary, resumed at first light this morning.

(BMcC/GK)

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