Police Find Body Of 16 Year Old Swimmer

25 July 2014, 14:47 | Updated: 25 July 2014, 14:55

Police have confirmed they have found the body of a 16 year old swimmer in a lake at Clophill in Bedfordshire.

Emergency services were called to Jacques Lane at around 6:40pm yesterday (24 July). The 16 year old had reportedly climbed over a fence at the former Fullers Earth quarry.

Fire crews spent the evening and this morning searching for his body in the lake.

The family of the boy, who come from Luton, were at the scene with the police.

One villager said:  "This was an accident waiting to happen.  Once the Fullers Earth had been extracted, we wanted to take over the land ourselves and turn it into a leisure park for the village, which would have had proper security and supervision.

"That hasn't happened and children have been climbing over the fence getting into the water.  It's been going on for ages.  The problem is that it used to be a quarry and the water is very very deep.

"This has happened at the start of the summer holidays and kids have been going down there since the hot weather began."

The case has now been handed over to the coroner for formal identification to take place.