Water rescue incident, Solihull

Number of people taken to hospital after being rescued by West Midlands firefighters

breaking_news_alt_1

Incidents

Published on 11 December 2022
This incident is closed
View all incidents

Babbs Mill Lake, Birmingham, UK

At 2.36pm on Sunday 11 December, West Midlands Fire Service, along with West Midlands Ambulance Service and West Midlands Police, were called to Babbs Mill Park in Solihull.

Reports from the scene and videos on social media indicate that people had been playing on the ice on a pond and had fallen through. Our specialist water rescue teams arrived and acted assertively to take control of the scene and carry out rescues using specialist equipment and entering the water.

Casualties have received medical support at the scene from both firefighters and ambulance personnel prior to being taken to nearby hospitals.

The incident is still a search and rescue operation, being led by West Midlands Fire Service.

We would ask people to allow emergency services at the scene to go about their work in a safe and effective way.

We will release further details when appropriate with our fellow blue-light partners.

View latest updates

Updates for this incident

info

Update from West Midlands Ambulance service:

Incident at Babbs Mill Park

info

Appeal from West Midlands Police:

info

Area Commander Richard Stanton of West Midlands Fire Service speaks at a media conference:

info

West Midlands Police Statement

Three boys have tragically died after falling into the lake at Babbs Mill Park in Solihull yesterday afternoon (11 December).

The boys, aged 11, 10 and 8 were rushed to hospital after being pulled from the water.
Sadly, they could not be revived and our thoughts are with their family and friends at this deeply devastating time. We’ll have specialist officers offering them as much support as we can.
A fourth boy, aged 6, remains in a critical condition in hospital.
We've been working alongside colleagues from the fire and ambulance services as we do all we can to support those involved.
Searches of the lake are continuing as we seek to establish exactly what happened and if anyone else fell into the water.
We understand how distressing this is for the families and the wider community.
We would ask people to not speculate or share any video footage at this stage.
You can contact us with information, video or images via https://mipp.police.uk/operation/20HQ19Z98-PO1.

info

We are sad to learn from our colleagues at West Midlands Police that, despite the best efforts of the emergency services, three children have sadly died following this incident.

One child remains in a critical condition in hospital and our thoughts are with the families affected.

We remain at the scene, along with West Midlands Police, to support their search efforts. We will continue doing everything until we are absolutely sure everyone is accounted for.

info

We're devastated to hear the fourth child rescued from the Babbs Mill Lake incident a few days ago has very sadly died. We wish the family strength and comfort in these tragic circumstances.

Police have confirmed searches are now completed and the scene at the lake will be closed shortly.

Back to top
Report

website issue
Contact us
Language

Translation

Choose your language

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram