Teens who drowned entered water to retrieve football

The tragedy occurred yesterday afternoon.

An alarm was raised yesterday afternoon (May 10) after three teenagers got into difficulty at Ned's point in Buncrana.

16-year-old Emmanuel Familola was rescued from the water after a multi-agency search operation, but died in hospital early this morning.

Furthermore, the body of 18-year-old Matt Sibanda was recovered from the water around 10pm last night.

The third boy managed to swim ashore following the incident, and Gardaí said he is expected to make a full recovery.

Familola from Nigeria and Sibanda from Zimbabwe were both with their families in separate IPAS centres in the area.

Now, local Sinn Féin councillor, Jack Murray has said the pair were trying to retrieve their football from the water.

He continued to say the community is 'absolutely devastated; following the tragedy.

"There's no words that you can describe how hurt everybody is - their community, our community. We're as one as we grieve this horrible news," he added.

"My understanding is they were playing football, the ball went into the water and they went in after the ball... just the innocence of kids playing football and this is the outcome.

"There's no words to describe how awful it is," said Murray.

A local priest in the area, Father Francis Bradley, shared that there was a terrible feeling of 'here we go again' in the area today.

He said: "We've had so many tragedies here, far too many like this. I suppose we are a beauty spot and because of that, it's almost like there are sirens that call us into the water."

Father Bradley continued to say there is a 'great sense of loss' among the community.

"These are new parishioners. They're not immigrants, they're new parishioners, new members of our community."