Police 'not 100% sure' missing boy, 11, fell into river

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/feb/18/missing-boy-carmarthen-river-towy-search-wales

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A search has resumed for an 11-year-old boy believed to have fallen into a river in Wales.

Dyfed-Powys police were called to reports that the child fell into the Towy in the Tanerdy area of Carmarthen just before 4pm on Tuesday.

Insp Eric Evans said about 50 people were involved in the search though he was not certain the boy was in the river. “We are not 100% sure that the boy has gone into the water, although we are fairly confident that he has,” he said. “We are conducting a thorough search of the area and following every lead in order to find him. As a police service we deal with missing person reports on a daily basis so are very experienced and well-trained and will be systematic in our approach to finding him.

“Our plan for today is to work more closely with other services who bring specialist skills and equipment in order to search the river. Searching a river is difficult with fast flowing water, tidal waters and dark pools. We have approximately 50 personnel from all services systematically searching the river from the point of where we believe the 11-year-old has gone in downstream. We are being guided by coastguard in relation to the flow of river and tidal water as to how far the boy could have travelled.”

Evans said the focus was to locate the boy, who has not been identified. “When we have done that we will then look at circumstances around the incident,” he said.

Police are coordinating the search with the Mid and West Wales fire and rescue service, coastguard, lifeboats, mountain rescue and ambulance rescue teams. The boy’s family are being supported by a specially trained officer.

A spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the search had resumed at first light on Wednesday. “We have coastguard rescue teams from Llansteffan, Tenby and Burry Port and the RAF rescue helicopter has been part of the search and rescue,” she said.