A body has been recovered from the River Shannon near Limerick on the eight day of a search for a man reported missing last week.
The discovery was made this afternoon by volunteers from the Clare-based Bunratty Search and Rescue team.
The alarm was raised at around 3.30pm on Monday October 21st when an ‘incident’ was reported near the Shannon Bridge in Limerick City. It’s understood that a man in his 20s was reported to have entered the water.
Members of both statutory and volunteer emergency services responded to the incident after a search was mounted by watch officers at the Irish Coast Guard’s marine rescue coordination centre on Valentia Island in Kerry.
Gardaí, the National Ambulance Service and Limerick City Fire and Rescue Service were initially mobilised while the volunteer Limerick Marine Search and Rescue Service was also alerted.
The Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter, Rescue 115, carried out a comprehensive search of the river as well as the Clare and Limerick shorelines from the city west to Cratloe.
In the following days, Limerick Marine Search and Rescue Service conducted further searches while dive teams and an underwater ROV (remotely operated vehicle) were also deployed.
Members of Tipperary Search and Rescue also assisted with the operation and conducted shoreline searches and launched a drone to cover a wider area.
Volunteers from Bunratty Search and Rescue also joined the operation during the week and launched their rescue boats twice every day to conduct searches of the shoreline as well as the many islands in the River Shannon and Estuary.
This morning, during a search they conducted at low tide, members of Bunratty Search and Rescue located a body close to the Limerick shore in the vicinity of the Ballinacurra marker buoy.
The body was recovered from the water on board the rescue boat and transported to their station at Bunratty. Gardaí were notified and attended the base while an undertaker was also requested to transport the remains to University Hospital Limerick where a efforts will be made to formally identify the person.
A postmortem examination is expected to be carried out.
