Two Irish women are killed in separate accidents abroad

Two Irish women have died in separate accidents in the south of France and Sardinia.

Ms Catherine Cryan (24), of Ballinafad, Co Sligo, was one of a party of 16 from Letterkenny's Institute of Technology's canoe club which was on a kayaking expedition in Briancon, near the Italian border in south-east France.

She went missing on Tuesday afternoon. The alarm was raised when her companions noticed she was missing during a break.

Ms Cryan's body was discovered early yesterday, about 250 metres from the spot where she was last seen.

She completed her bachelor of design examinations in Letterkenny Institute of Technology, Co Donegal, just this month.

The party of 12 students and four instructors had travelled overland to France on Friday. They were due to spend two weeks away, beginning in the Briancon area, which is about halfway between Greenoble in France and Turin in Italy.

Letterkenny Institute of Technology was yesterday making arrangements to fly the party home.

However, efforts were complicated by the French air-traffic controllers' strike.

It is now expected that the party will not arrive back in Ireland until tomorrow.

A spokesman for the institute, Mr Danny Brennan, said the faculty and the student body were deeply shocked by the tragedy abroad .

A 21-year-old woman from Co Mayo, who was also a third- level student, died in hospital on Tuesday after being involved in a traffic accident at the weekend while on holiday in Sardinia.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it had no information on the Sardinian accident and could not confirm if an Irish national was involved.

However, local sources in Co Mayo have named the woman as Aoife Griffin, from Keelogues, Ballyvary, Castlebar.

A number of her friends were also involved in the accident but their injuries were not serious.

Arrangements are being made to have her body brought home for burial.