Two teenage girls died yesterday after jumping into a notoriously dangerous river.
They are thought to have leapt up to 30ft from a bridge at a spot that has become popular among teenagers for ‘tombstoning’.
A witness said the girls, aged around 14, were part of a group who were daring each other to jump into the fast-flowing Wear in Fatfield, Washington, near Sunderland.
Missing: A desperate search is underway after Chloe Fowler, 13, left, and Toni-Beth Purvis, 15, right, went missing in the River Wear this afternoon. Police dive teams this evening recovered two female bodies
Two girls were seen in the water in the River Wear near Washington, Tyne and Wear this afternoon
Police said a member of the public, possibly the father of one of the girls, also swam across the river but could not reach them.
Around 100 rescue and emergency service personnel, backed up by a police helicopter, hunted for the girls, but last night the search was scaled down after two bodies were found.
Search teams have been seen on the banks of the river this afternoon
Boats were launched and emergency services staff were alerted to the incident just before 3pm this afternoon
Superintendent Alan Veitch, of Northumbria Police, said: ‘The parents are distraught and need a lot of support and we are providing them with every assistance we can.’
He said the river was tidal up to a point upstream from where the children went missing, and that there was a lot of debris and foliage in the water.
‘Today was one of the hottest days of the year, it’s the school holidays and it’s tempting to go in the water,’ he added.
‘There are big, strong powerful river currents and this is not the place to lark about.’
The bridge is over a wide stretch of the river, which is lower than usual after the recent heatwave.
A witness, who is a neighbour of one of the girls, said: ‘There was a group of about five older lads and they were daring the girls to jump into the water.
Missing: Eyewitnesses said the girls were jumping from the jetty into a relatively slow-flowing stretch of the river
‘At that point the river was very low which meant they were jumping from about 20 or 30 feet, about the height of a two-storey house. It’s really murky and they just disappeared under.’
Locals said the currents in the river were notoriously strong and several others have drowned there.
Witnesses said they thought the member of the public who dived in may have been one of the girls’ fathers.
Paul Cronin, 63, said: ‘This gentleman came running up towards the park dressed in his boxer shorts.
‘He had just crawled out of the river and had nearly drowned himself. He was screaming at me, “Can you swim?”.’
Mr Cronin went to the river with the would-be rescuer, but when he got there he saw no sign of the girls. ‘By the time I got there it was too late,’ he said. ‘Some of the kids had been messing around and threatening to push each other in.’
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