Girl fights for life after rowing boat capsizes

A YOUNG girl was rushed to hospital yesterday in a critical condition after a boating incident in Limerick.

She is understood to have been one of a group of four girls who were travelling in a rowing boat that was found overturned on a stretch of the Abbey River. The incident happened shortly after 10am.

Members of Limerick City and County Fire and Rescue Service came across the boat overturned in the water and went to the girl’s aid.

The fire service team was made up of Swift Water Rescue personnel who had been carrying out a routine test on their specialist boat.

The injured girl had become trapped underneath the boat after it capsized on the river.

Sources said the girl’s hair had become “entangled” and “caught up” in the outriggers of the rowing boat, which are used to anchor the oars.

Firefighters “cut the girl’s hair to free her” and they immediately began to carry out CPR on her.

The emergency response also involved members of Limerick Marine Search and Rescue Service, gardai and the Shannon-based Coast Guard rescue helicopter.

The girl was taken to the St Michael’s Rowing Club slipway in Limerick city and removed by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick where she was in a critical condition, sources said.

Munster Regional Communications Centre, which handles all 999 fire service-related calls in the region, received the alert at 10.15am.

Four units from Limerick city’s fire service were deployed to Athlunkard Boat Club, near Corbally, to deal with the incident.

It is believed that the three other rescued girls were not injured.