Boy dies on school trip to Lake District

A boy aged 10 died yesterday while on a school trip in the Lake District.

A boy aged 10 died yesterday while on a school trip in the Lake District.

Emergency services were called yesterday morning to a beck near Glenridding, Cumbria, after the boy got into difficulties while bathing with a group. A mountain rescue team led attempts to rescue the boy, buthe was pronounced dead at the scene.

A 37-year-old woman – thought to be a teacher at the boy's school in Fleetwood, Lancashire – was flown to hospital with mild hypothermia, and later discharged. A second schoolboy was also taken by helicopter to Furness General Hospital in Barrow as a precaution after suffering from the effects of cold.

Yesterday afternoon, a joint investigation was opened involving Cumbria police and the Health and Safety Executive to try to discover what went wrong.

The coroner has been informed and a post-mortem examination was due to be carried out by a Home Office pathologist.

A spokesman for Patterdale Mountain Rescue team said that the boy appeared to have been swimming or bathing in the beck when he got into difficulties.

The members of the rescue team then used a rope system to bring two casualties down from the narrow beck, which was about 400 metres from a nearby youth hostel, he said.