River search resumes for missing boy

A search resumed today in the North for a teenage boy feared drowned in a flooded river as he tried to rescue a dog.

James Elliott (14) was swept away in the River Bush in the village of Stranocum near Dervock, north Antrim.

His police officer father and another teenage boy were rescued after they also got into trouble in the water.

Emergency services which called off a search last night because of the fading light were returning this morning, but believe there is little hope of finding the boy alive.

Mervyn Storey, a north Antrim Democratic Unionist Party member of the Northern Ireland Assembly said: “Everybody is hoping for a rescue, but its become more and more like a recovery operation.”

James, a pupil at Dalriada High School, and a keen soccer player, had been with his father and a friend walking dogs along the river bank. It seems he went into the water to try to retrieve one of the dogs which got into difficulties.

It is the second time in just weeks that the school has been hit by tragedy. Last month Sharon McCracken (17) an A-level student, was killed in a car crash.