Teenage girls die in storm river tragedy
TWO bodies were found last night by police diving teams searching for two teenage girls swept away in a river swollen by thunderstorms.
The pair disappeared at 3pm as they played by a viaduct on the River Wear in Fatfield near Washington, Tyne and Wear.
Locals, who helped to scour the riverbanks, named the pair as Chloe Fowler, 14, and Toni-Beth Purvis, 15.
They are understood to have been pupils at Oxclose Community School.
A spokesman for Northumbria Police said: “The families of the girls have been informed.”
They were leaping from the jetty when the younger one lost her breath and went under
Reports suggested the girls had been jumping into the river when one of them got into trouble and her friend tried to rescue her.
A witness said: “They were leaping from the jetty when the younger one lost her breath and went under. The older one went in after her and they both disappeared.”
A hundred-strong team of rescuers joined the search effort, which lasted seven hours.
The first body was eventually found at around 9.30pm followed by the second half an hour later. The river level had been low due to the heatwave but it had swollen after the storms.