Body found after 21-year-old went missing in water near Clacton Pier

Man’s body is found after 21-year-old went missing in water near Clacton Pier as heatwave death toll rises to 16

• A man’s body was recovered from coastal village of Jaywick in Essex
• Comes after 21-year-old went missing near to Clacton Pier earlier this week 
• Five people were rescued from the area after a ‘serious incident’ on Tuesday 

A body has been recovered in a coastal village just days after a 21-year-old went missing in water during sweltering temperatures.

Four men and a woman were pulled ashore near Clacton Pier, Essex, and rushed to Colchester Hospital after a ‘serious incident’ on Tuesday but the 21-year-old man remained unaccounted for.

Helicopters, coastguard and police were all scrambled to search for the missing man, who was last seen four days ago, after it was reported a current appeared to have ‘dragged’ a group of people under the pier’s structure.

Formal identification has not yet taken place, police said, adding that they are ‘liaising with international partners to contact the family of the 21-year-old’. 

The tragic discovery takes the UK’s heatwave death toll since July 9 to at least 16. 

Four men and a woman were pulled ashore near Clacton Pier, Essex, (pictured) and rushed to Colchester Hospital after a ‘serious incident’ on Tuesday but the 21-year-old man remained unaccounted for

Helicopters, coastguard and police were all scrambled to search for the missing man, who was last seen four days ago, after it was reported a current appeared to have ‘dragged’ a group of people under the pier’s structure

A statement released by Essex Police on Saturday said: ‘Emergency services involved in the search for a man who was last seen in the water close to Clacton Pier have this AM located a body of a man in Jaywick.

‘Formal ID has not yet taken place. We’re liaising with international partners to contact the family of the 21-year-old.’

Nigel Brown, communications manager for Clacton Pier, had earlier told reporters a current is understood to have caused the group to be ‘dragged’ under the structure.

Staff threw lifebuoys over the side of the pier to help rescue those who had got into difficulty in the water, he added. 

UK temperatures broke the 40C barrier for the first time on Tuesday, July 19, smashing the previous record of 38.7C recorded in Cambridge’s Botanical Gardens in 2019.

Multiple people have lost their lives while swimming in the hot temperatures, including a 70-year-old man on the Isle of Wight on Monday.

On the same day, a Wiltshire man in his 20s died at Cotswold Water Park, Ashton Keynes. He was pulled from the water but pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 6pm.

A 14-year-old boy lost his life swimming in the Thames near to Richmond, and on July 19 five people had to be rescued from the Clacton Pier area after a ‘serious’ incident.

Two other youngsters have also lost their lives in the past week, a 16-year-old boy who died in Lake Bray in Maidenhead, and a 13-year-old boy who died following an incident in the River Tyne. 

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