Holiday accidents claim two lives

A six-year-old boy from Claudy has drowned in Portugal.

Nathan Sharkey was on holiday with his parents on the Algarve when he died on Thursday. The Foreign Office are providing assistance to his parents.

In Spain, a 16-year-old west Belfast teenager died after falling from a balcony.

Padraig Burns, from Tullymore Gardens, was on holiday with a group of friends in Benidorm when the accident happened on 19 July.

A neighbour of the Sharkey family in Claudy said she was devastated by the news.

"They're a beautiful family. He was a beautiful wee boy, really loving, really affectionate. I couldn't even begin to think of how they are going to cope," Karen O'Kane said.

Nathan is survived by a twin brother and another brother.

Father Peter Carlin has been trying to comfort the Burns family.

"This is a family that is very strong in faith and so they draw on their faith, they draw on their own values to support each other," he said.

"They have met a situation beyond anyone's limit to comfort and basically they've reached something deep within themselves."