A body was found in the search for a man who went missing after swimming in a reservoir during UK’s record-breaking temperatures this week.
Lewis Saggers, 24, was last seen on Tuesday around 4 p.m. near Hadham Hall reservoir in East Hertfordshire.
Hertfordshire police, Midshires Search and Rescue, and Herfordshire Fire and Rescue Service all started participating in extensive searches the same day.
Lewis’ girlfriend Kady Brown shared a fresh plea to find him on Thursday. She wrote on Facebook: ‘Lewis please let me know you are safe and healthy. I love you, I won’t rest till I find you.’
Hertfordshire police said: ‘Police have suspended the search for missing Lewis Saggers after a body was discovered in Hadham Hall reservoir yesterday afternoon (July 21).
‘Formal identification is yet to take place, but his next of kin have been informed.
‘We ask that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time.
‘Thank you to everyone who shared our appeals to trace him.’
Friends and family of Lewis have taken to social media to express their devastation at the news.
Friend Billy Abery wrote: ‘Lots of memories over the years, you really was one of a kind.
‘I’m so sorry this has happened to you, you left your mark on this world, my thoughts are with your family, Kady and everyone who you ever made smile.’
A second wrote: ‘I’m so so sorry and devastated for you and your family after seeing the news, sending you all lots of love.’
Since July 9 there have been at least 15 deaths in the UK due to the heatwave.
On Tuesday, July 19, temperatures in the UK reached the 40-degree mark for the first time, shattering the previous record of 38.7 degrees set in the Cambridge Botanical Gardens in 2019.
In the sweltering weather, many people have drowned while swimming, including a 70-year-old man on the Isle of Wight on Monday.
A 20-year-old Wiltshire man passed away at Cotswold Water Park in Ashton Keynes the same day. After 6 o’clock, he was pulled from the sea but was already dead.
In the vicinity of Richmond, a 14-year-old boy drowned while swimming in the Thames, and on July 19, five people needed to be rescued from the Clacton Pier area following a “serious” incident.
A 16-year-old boy from Maidenhead who died in Lake Bray and a 13-year-old boy who passed away after an incident in the River Tyne are the other two children who died in the last week.