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| River search for teenager resumes | River search for teenager resumes |
| (21 minutes later) | |
| Police have resumed their search of the River Thames in Oxford for a teenage boy who fell off his bike into the river. | Police have resumed their search of the River Thames in Oxford for a teenage boy who fell off his bike into the river. |
| Thames Valley Police said the 15-year-old, from Wolvercote, fell in on Sunday afternoon in the Port Meadow Marina area. | Thames Valley Police said the 15-year-old, from Wolvercote, fell in on Sunday afternoon in the Port Meadow Marina area. |
| A specialist search and recovery team with a boat and divers has been brought to comb the river at Walton Well Road. | A specialist search and recovery team with a boat and divers has been brought to comb the river at Walton Well Road. |
| Police said the river was swollen and described conditions as treacherous. | Police said the river was swollen and described conditions as treacherous. |
| The teenager and his friends are thought to have been playing on bicycles on the flooded towpath when he fell in at about 1700 GMT. | The teenager and his friends are thought to have been playing on bicycles on the flooded towpath when he fell in at about 1700 GMT. |
| There were life rings all the way along the river and it looked like they had been used Giles Shearing, local resident | There were life rings all the way along the river and it looked like they had been used Giles Shearing, local resident |
| Local resident Giles Shearing, 40, told how the alarm was raised by his two friends, who said their friend had drowned. | Local resident Giles Shearing, 40, told how the alarm was raised by his two friends, who said their friend had drowned. |
| Mr Shearing said he was working on his houseboat, the Gaiety, on the other side of the river when the two boys, who seemed to be in shock, told him and a passer-by "our friend has just drowned". | Mr Shearing said he was working on his houseboat, the Gaiety, on the other side of the river when the two boys, who seemed to be in shock, told him and a passer-by "our friend has just drowned". |
| Mr Shearing said he and the passer-by used a small boat to search along the river to Osney Lock, a quarter of a mile downriver. | Mr Shearing said he and the passer-by used a small boat to search along the river to Osney Lock, a quarter of a mile downriver. |
| He said: "We had a hope that maybe we would find the boy and be able to resuscitate him at that stage, but he had gone in 20 minutes prior to my being alerted. | He said: "We had a hope that maybe we would find the boy and be able to resuscitate him at that stage, but he had gone in 20 minutes prior to my being alerted. |
| Police said the river was swollen and treacherous | |
| "I think they might have found his bicycle. He did bob up once fairly near to where he fell in and the passer-by felt very guilty that he hadn't run down the towpath or done something then. | "I think they might have found his bicycle. He did bob up once fairly near to where he fell in and the passer-by felt very guilty that he hadn't run down the towpath or done something then. |
| "There were life rings all the way along the river and it looked like they had been used." | "There were life rings all the way along the river and it looked like they had been used." |
| He said they eventually had to abandon the search and leave the boat when the current became too strong. Port Meadow, a popular beauty spot in the city, regularly becomes flooded when river overflows in winter. | He said they eventually had to abandon the search and leave the boat when the current became too strong. Port Meadow, a popular beauty spot in the city, regularly becomes flooded when river overflows in winter. |