Two brothers and cousin die in kayak horror

THREE men from the same family were found dead yesterday after a kayak trip on a swollen river went disastrously wrong.

Two brothers aged 41 and 40 were with their 36-year-old cousin when they ended up in the river and drowned, having last been seen at a spot called Devil’s Water.

The men were using ‘sit-on’ style kayaks, of a kind commonly used by leisure trippers rather than serious kayakers, in conditions dangerous enough for the local canoe club to cancel a planned excursion. Torrential rain over the weekend had made the Tyne near Hexham, in Northumberland, faster, deeper and more dangerous than normal.

The alarm was raised when the men did not return home to South Tyneside on Sunday evening and three bodies were found hours later after a search involving coastguards, police, firemen and an RAF helicopter.

Police are investigating but there are no known witnesses and the truth of exactly what happened may never emerge.

The men, who have not been named, had parked a car at Hexham and were planning to paddle 14 miles downstream to reach a second car at Wylam.

They got about half-way when tragedy struck. They are believed to have been last seen at noon on Sunday near Corbridge.

The dog walker who saw the men said they were wearing helmets and life jackets, but he was surprised to see them because kayakers are rare at this time of year on that stretch of water.

He said: ‘They were heading downstream. They would have gone down to a gorge, where the water is very fast-flowing, and that would have been very dangerous.’

Two of the bodies were found near a weir at Riding Mill and the third a mile upstream. Three kayaks were also recovered.

Chief Superintendent Gordon Milward of Northumbria Police said: ‘We have two families distraught. It’s unimaginable.’