Teenagers tell of bid to rescue brothers

TEENAGERS who helped in the dramatic rescue from a frozen lake of three brothers, two of whom later died, told yesterday of their heroic efforts.

The brothers, thought to be in their 40s or 50s, were seen in the water at the Watermead Country Park in Leicester on Friday.

Two later died, and another was released from hospital, the Leicester Royal Infirmary confirmed. A fourth man, who did not fall in the water, was also at the scene.

Yesterday it remained a mystery why the men had been on the lake at about 2.30pm yesterday.

Leicestershire Police dismissed reports that they had been scattering ashes, but today the force said there were no updates on its investigation into the tragedy.

Teenagers who had been sledging near the lake described their efforts to help the struggling men.

Sam Trewick and Adam Whitehead told how they crawled across the ice to help get to the men after hearing one struggling in the water.

They said they saw the men about 30 yards from what they thought was the edge of the lake.

They said: "We saw the men running back on the ice, screaming and shouting. There was another man and more ice broken through."

Trewick said: "I had a tow rope in the boot of my car, got the tow rope out of the car and ran to the edge.

"What we could see at the time was one person in the water."

They said they checked the ice with their feet and then started to make their way on to the ice.

They said: "As we got 10-15m out, it started cracking beneath our feet so we got down on all fours and literally crawled to him.

"He was speaking very broken English, we couldn't understand what he was saying.

"We finally got it out of him that there was two more people in the water and what we had initially thought was just a jacket was actually two people."