Police officers find body in search for four-year-old boy who fell in sea

Officers searching for a four-year-old boy who slipped into the sea from a jetty found a child’s body yesterday.

Dylan Cecil was on holiday with his family when he fell into the water at Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, at 6pm on Sunday.

The body was found near a yacht club at about 12:30pm yesterday, police said.

Avon and Somerset Police said Dylan’s parents have been informed.

His mother, Rachel McCollum, said earlier this week her son had fallen into a “whirlpool” and she knew immediately that she would not see him again.

A police spokesman said: “Officers searching for the body of a four-year-old boy who fell into the water at Burnham-on-Sea can confirm that the body of a young boy has been found near to the yacht club in Burnham-on-Sea.”

Dylan, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, was visiting his grandparents with his mother, father Darren Cecil and two younger sisters, aged one and three. He had wanted to get a closer look at the sea when he slipped off the side of the jetty and disappeared beneath the water.

His parents desperately tried to rescue him, but were unable to reach their son and had to be pulled from the water by passers-by.

The coastguard and police launched a large search and rescue operation after a member of the public saw Dylan’s parents attempting to rescue him.

The search for Dylan was called off at 4:30pm on Monday but volunteers continued to look for him to bring closure to his family. On Wednesday the UK underwater rescue organisation SARbot used specialist sonar equipment to scour the water for Dylan’s body but was unable to find him.

Dylan’s family have remained in Burnham-on-Sea since Sunday and have been updated about the recovery operation.

Ms McCollum said: “He was literally not even a metre away from me and he was jumping and slipped and I watched him fall in.

“I jumped in straight after him – what more could I do? He went. I knew as soon as I jumped in I was not getting him back.”

The water off Burnham-on-Sea has one of the highest tidal rise and fall ranges in the world and the shoreline is notorious for its dangerous mudflats.

The local authority, Sedgemoor District Council, said it was satisfied all its procedures were followed correctly and there are many warning signs along the beach, esplanade and on the jetty hut.

But it said it is also carrying out an internal review “to establish all relevant information”.