A five-year-old boy who was pulled from a 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 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.
Inspector Shaf Ali of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said: “I would like to thank everyone involved in the search effort and extend my sincerest condolences to the family at this time.”
