A Walton resident has spoken of the "misleadingly calm" and "treacherous" River Thames following the tragic death of a 15-year-old boy on Wednesday.

The body of the youngster, understood by Get Surrey to be a Rydens School pupil, was found in the water by emergency services teams.

A police spokeswoman said it was believed the boy had been trying to swim across the river from Walton to Shepperton.

Nichole Santoriello, who lives in Felix Road, saw the tragedy unfolding on Wednesday afternoon and said: "From the end of our garden, you can see the field where they [emergency services crews] were actually diving in.

"From the front of the house, there were fire engines in the road and the Surrey Search & Rescue guys were coming in.

"The fire engines were all just tearing in and you're thinking 'that's not good to see'.

"Coming through from Walton Bridge, you saw the dive teams going in from there."

River Thames body find in Walton
Police cordoned off a section of the riverbank

Another eyewitness said: "From what I could see, most of the search was concentrated on the stretch of river adjacent to the weir and opposite the rowing club."

Ms Santoriello, a 41-year-old mother of four daughters, described the incident as "very tragic" and added: "Once you get stuck in the weir, you really haven't got much hope, it's treacherous.

"People just don't understand the dangers of water... they don't know the currents here."

"It's misleadingly calm at this time of year. The water surface looks like glass, it's beautifully still, but underneath it's not.

"A lot of the kids do dive in," she added.

As well as the weir, there is an island on the stretch of river and Ms Santoriello said: "If you think about water running either side of an island, you've got lots of [currents] pulling in different directions, and it's very deep in the middle."

There were other youngsters also at the scene and Ms Santoriello said she understood the emergency services "already knew the name of the boy before they found him, they had talked to some of the girls".

"There were some girls really shaken up with blankets around them, that I noticed, and four or five boys."

She also paid tribute to the emergency services for their efforts, saying: "They were fabulous, it was such a professional job, you could see them methodically doing it, going along with their boats, using the long pole in the water."

Surrey Police said a call about a "concern for safety" in the river close to Felix Road was first made at around 2.20pm, with reports of a "teenager seen going underwater".

River Thames body find in Walton

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service units and divers from Specialist Group International went to the scene and embarked on a search operation in the water, while a police helicopter circled overhead.

It was later confirmed that the body of a 15-year-old boy was recovered from the river at 4.40pm.





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