A boy aged just 11 desperately tried to save his five-year-old brother as the younger sibling was swept away before drowning in a lake.
Ben Duffy was just metres away from his parents, Alan and Tracey, when the tragedy unfolded during a bank holiday family outing at Lough Mask in County Mayo, Ireland, on Monday evening.
While playing with his four siblings, the youngster was on an inflatable dinghy near the shoreline when it was blown away by a gust of wind as his eldest brother Matthew tried to keep a grasp on it.
Ben's parents and siblings watched in horror as the inflatable was swept into open water, where he fell in when he stood up and the dinghy capsized, the Irish Independent reported.
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A desperate search involving boats, divers, local rescue teams and a Coast Guard helicopter was launched but it was called off after nightfall.
Mr and Mrs Duffy, who live across from the lake, stayed at the scene throughout the night.
The body of the junior infants pupil was recovered after the search resumed at first light on Tuesday morning.
The youngster, from Tourmakeady, was playing with his brothers Matthew, Daniel and Dolan, and sister Dorothy in a secluded and shallow area when tragedy struck just after 6pm.
Their parents were just metres away when Ben, the couple's youngest child, was swept away, the Irish Mirror reported.
Distraught Mr and Mrs Duffy were being comforted by family, friends and the local parish priest following their son's death.
A source said: “Everyone was nearby and his dad Alan and others were in the water and went after the dinghy.
“But he wasn’t in the dinghy when they got to it.
“If only he had managed to stay in the dinghy he would have been recovered but, sadly, he fell out.”
Father John Kenny, the local parish priest, visited the grieving family on Tuesday.
He said: “I baptised Ben and he had the biggest, loveliest eyes you ever saw in a young lad.
“I would say he was the dote of the family, full of life and they will greatly miss him.
“Alan and Tracey and the children are a hugely popular family in this parish and very actively involved in the life of the community.
“They’d always be involved in lots of local events, particularly anything to do with fundraising for the school and anything that was focused on GAA.
“They would be key people in the community and hugely involved in not just the fundraising but the wellbeing
of the community.
“They ran the Operation Transformation event we did in the community a few years ago and it had a very high profile throughout the district.
“Tracey’s family lives in England so that will add to the sense of loss for them.”
