Police are today continuing to search for a brother and sister missing and feared dead after their car was swept away while crossing a swollen stream.
Ryan Martel, 26, and his sister Frankie Chappel, 17, have been missing since the off-duty taxi they were in with two other men was pulled down a rocky river near St Ives, in Cornwall.
Yesterday, one of the passengers, a 20-year-old man, was found dead, while the remaining passenger, another 20-year-old man, escaped the Volvo saloon as it filled with water from severe flash flooding.
A Devon and Cornwall police spokesman said: "The family wish to extend their thanks to all emergency services who have been and still are involved in the search for Ryan and Frankie. Also, members of the public and householders nearby who have helped. They say that their thoughts are with other families affected by this tragedy."
The car got into difficulties in the early hours of Saturday while trying to make the crossing in the village of Zennor, in west Cornwall. The body of the deceased passenger was recovered just after 7am yesterday downstream from where the Volvo S70 was found "fully submerged and full of water", Devon and Cornwall police said.
Expert divers, the fire service, coastguard and rescue helicopters were this evening combing the rugged stretch of coast, 14 miles from Land's End for the missing women. The passenger who managed to free himself from the Volvo S70 before it was sucked out into the water on the B3306 between St Ives and St Just, called ambulance control at 1.41am on Saturday saying that three others were lost.
The tragedy has drawn comparison with the flash floods at nearby Boscastle in 2004 where a ten-foot high torrent of water surged through the village.
The most recent disaster occurred as flooding was reported in several parts of St Ives, due to the heavy rainfall overnight.
Flooding was reported at three hotels in the seaside resort, with the St Ives Bay, and the Chy an Albany being evacuated. Residents forced to leave were put up at a nearby hotel. Zennor's only pub, The Tinner's Arms, built in 1271, managed to open at 11am despite being deluged with a foot of flash flood water.
John and Mary Clifford found that their cottage in Zennor quickly filled with up to a foot of water in the worst flash flooding they had ever experienced.
Mr Clifford, 68, who worked in advertising until he retired, said it was a "desperate" situation and that the coastal road where the car was swept away was prone to flooding.
He said today: "The water was just coming down the road and down the steps around the front of the house. We are still dealing with it now. It is about a foot deep in places. Because of the unevenness of the cottage it is higher in some spots than others. Even at its lowest it is six to nine inches. Apart from the water the mud and sludge is devastating."
A digger was brought in this to aid the search, with 20 police officers, police dogs, the coastguard and fire service involved. The rescue attempt also involved thermal imaging, the RNLI and helicopters from the police and RNAS Culdrose. The car was found 100 yards down stream and the dead man further down the watercourse. Police have yet to formally identify the dead man.
An area of outstanding natural beauty, Zennor is known for its rugged landscape and meandering streams. With a population of around 200, most of the land is owned by traditional Cornish farming families.
