A SCHOOLBOY has gone missing after he was seen getting into a river but not getting out.
Police are scouring the River Don in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, in search of the 11-year-old boy after he entered the water on Saturday.
The National Police Air Service, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, and the Yorkshire Ambulance Service all raced to the scene just before 8pm.
South Yorkshire Police said a specialist search is underway and that the boy’s family have been informed.
Doncaster Response Team Inspector Neil Pryce added: “We know, from witnesses and items left on the riverbank, where the boy entered the water.
“Utilising specialist knowledge and skills, a coordinated multi-agency operation is underway and we are doing everything we can to find this young man.
“We are invaluably assisted by an underwater search team, supported from above by the police helicopter and drones.
“This is a tragic incident and we understand that members of the public want to do all they can to help but we must ask that, for everyone’s safety, only those who are involved in our operation enter the River Don.
“To give the boy and his family the dignity they deserve, we ask that people do not spectate or film the search operation.”
A spokesperson for the force said: “We were called to Ferry Boat Lane in Mexborough at 7.59pm yesterday (Saturday 30 May) to reports that an 11-year-old boy had entered the water but had not been seen getting out.
“Officers, alongside emergency crews from the National Police Air Service, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, and the Yorkshire Ambulance Service, responded and a specialist search operation remains underway.
“The boy’s family has been informed and is being supported by specially trained officers.”
This comes after 15 people died in the water during last weekend’s record-breaking heatwave – 13 of the fatalities were young people.
Emergency services raced to beauty spots across the country during half-term as temperatures consistently topped 30C.
Baltazar L’Quy, 14, died after “getting into difficulty” in the River Thames in Oxford at around 5.45pm on May 27.
Also on Wednesday, police were called to a pond in Swanscombe in Kent after concerns for another teen swimmer.
The body of a teenage boy was sadly pulled from the water, police said today.
Meanwhile, the body of 15-year-old Abbie Carmody-Pepper was recovered off Burrow Beach near Howth, Dublin, by the Irish Coast Guard on Sunday evening.
In another tragedy, Declan Sawyer, 15, died while swimming in a lake near his home in Lincoln at 2.30pm, also on Sunday.
Reco Pinnock, 13, sadly passed away after being rushed to hospital when he was pulled from Leadbeater Dam in Halifax, West Yorkshire, on Monday afternoon.
Emergency services also raced to Kingsbury Water Park, Warwickshire, just after 6pm on Monday, following concerns for welfare of a girl in the water.
Sadly, a 16-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.
A body was also discovered in the hunt for a teenage boy who was last seen entering the water at Rother Valley Country Park, South Yorkshire, on the same day.
He has been named locally as 16-year-old Muhammad Secka, with tributes rolling in for the teenager who was “loved by many”.
Junior Slater, 12, vanished while swimming with friends in the River Ribble, in Lancashire, on Tuesday afternoon.
Emergency crews, including underwater search units, were scrambled to the river near Ribchester just after 2pm.
Junior’s body was sadly pulled from the water several hours later.
Issuing a statement through the police, his heartbroken family hailed him as the “soul of our lives”.
A body was also found in the search for a 17-year-old boy last seen getting into Pickmere Lake, near Northwich in Cheshire at 4.50pm on Tuesday.
In another tragedy, emergency services scrambled to Hawley Lake on the Hampshire-Surrey border.
A body thought to be a teenage boy was pulled from the water.
Phil Crow, 68, also lost his life after running into the water when his granddaughter and wife were pulled out to sea on Monday.
The grandad tragically went into cardiac arrest in the sea at Tregirls Beach in Padstow, Cornwall, at around 3.50pm.
A 72-year-old woman was also pulled from the water at West Angle Bay beach, Pembrokeshire in Wales, on Sunday.
One teenage girl is also fighting for her life in hospital after getting into difficulty in the water off Formby beach.
The 15-year-old was rescued from the water after the alarm was raised by members of the public.
