Body of child pulled from sea off southern Ireland
The body of the girl was found around 7.45pm after a three-hour search operation.
Tuesday 5 September 2023 22:52, UK
The body of a young girl has been recovered from the sea off the coast of southern Ireland.
A search operation was launched on Tuesday afternoon at Fountainstown Beach, near Crosshaven, in County Cork.
The alert was raised at about 4.40pm after reports the child had entered the water.
Irish police said the body was removed from the water at about 7.45pm and the girl was pronounced dead.
In a statement, Gardai said: "A search and rescue operation at Fountainstown Beach, near Crosshaven, County Cork, has been stood down following the recovery of the body of a female child this evening.
"A search and rescue operation was launched involving the Coast Guard, RNLI, Fire Services, Customs, Mallow River Rescue and Garda Units from Crosshaven and Carrigaline Garda stations.
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"The body of the child will be removed from the scene and taken to Cork University Hospital where a post mortem will take place.
"The Coroner has been notified. No further information is available at this time."
Fountainstown Beach is around 20km from Cork city.
The latest incident comes after several recent tragedies in the area.
Two men - aged 45 and 64 - died in separate incidents in the swim section of an Ironman event in Youghal on 20 August. Youghal is around 40km from Fountainstown beach.
A 14-year-old boy died four days later when he got into difficulty while swimming in nearby Passage West on Cork's Lower Harbour.