Five-year-old boy pulled from river in Northern Ireland dies

Child fell into Braid River in Balleymena on Saturday afternoon

A multi-agency search operation began on Saturday afternoon after reports that a child fell into the Braid River in Ballymena at around 1pm (Google Maps/screen grab)

A five-year-old boy who was pulled from a fast-flowing river in Northern Ireland has died in hospital, local police have said.

A multi-agency search operation began on Saturday afternoon after reports that a child fell into the Braid River in Ballymena, County Antrim, at around 1pm.

The boy had been swept more than four miles down the river before he was recovered from the water just after 3pm, according to a spokesman from the Northern Ireland Ambulance Ambulance Service (NIAS).

He was flown by air ambulance to the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, where he later died.

“The thoughts of all involved in the rescue are with the young boy and his family,” the NIAS spokesman said.

Sean McCarry, regional commander of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), said teams had worked closely with the police, fire service and air ambulance during the multi-agency response.

He said: “He got swept away quite fast with it, he was travelling quite a distance. He was doing a mile in under 15 minutes.”

Mr McCarry said rescuers were “running desperately” after the boy, while a police helicopter observed from above and reported any sightings.

“The police were co-coordinating and telling us where we needed to go to next and we were just trying to get ahead of him in the river,” he said.

“Eventually that happened and he was pulled out of the river and put into the air ambulance.”

Inspector Shaf Ali of the PSNI said: “I would like to thank everyone involved in the search effort and extend my sincerest condolences to the family at this time.”