Specialist diving teams continue search for missing two-year-old boy
Published:13:48 19/02/2024
Specialist police diving teams are continuing to search the River Soar today (Monday) following a report received yesterday evening that a two-year-old boy had fallen into the water.
Police had been called to the Aylestone Meadows area, close to Marsden Lane, at around 5pm yesterday evening (Sunday).
The boy had been out with family when he had fallen into the water. Despite the best efforts of people at the scene at the time, the boy was not located.
A man was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure and has since been discharged.
Specialist teams were deployed to the area yesterday evening (Sunday), including Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service, and continued in their efforts to locate the child.
That operation continued overnight with force units using night vision goggles searching the area. The National Police Air Service (NPAS) and drone unit also supported officers on the ground.
Today, specialist diving teams from Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire are supporting Leicestershire officers as the search continues at the scene. Police dogs are also assisting at the scene.
Specialist officers continue to support the boy’s family and our thoughts continue to remain with them at this extremely difficult time.
We continue to receive a number of offers of support to assist with the search. We are extremely grateful for these offers but do ask for safety reasons that people do not attend the scene due to the rising water levels.
Assistant Chief Constable Michaela Kerr is leading the police operation.
She said:
“Firstly our thoughts are very much with the little boy’s family at this extremely difficult and heartbreaking time. It is unimaginable to know what they must be going through.
“As soon as the report was received yesterday, officers and other emergency services were deployed to the scene. Searches commenced immediately and continued throughout the night.
“Rising water levels made the searches difficult, however we used the resources available to us including NPAS to try and locate the boy.
“This morning additional specialist teams including dive teams from Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire Police are being deployed to the scene.
“We do please continue to ask members of the public to not carry out their own searches, due to the dangerous water levels at the scene.
“If anyone has any information or comes across anything that may assist officers, they are asked to contact us immediately.
“Thank you to all our officers and specialist teams who continue to work extremely hard at the scene in what are very difficult circumstance for everyone involved. Thank you also to you, the members of the public, for your ongoing support and co-operation. It is very much appreciated.”
Anyone with any information should contact 999 quoting incident 476:180224.
