The body of a 16-year-old boy was recovered from a disused quarry last night after a frantic search involving more than 50 people failed to rescue him from the pit on a farm near Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath.
The youth was named locally last night as Stephen Kelly, of Cumminstown, Kilbeggan.
At around 5 p.m. yesterday, the boy was with another teenager near the pit on a family farm at Cumminstown, a townland on the Dublin side of the town of Kilbeggan. It is understood that as they played, the pit collapsed and one of the boys was submerged in a deluge of sand.
The boy's friend managed to escape without injury. He raised the alarm and within a short time members of the Fire Brigade, Garda, Civil Defence and members of the public began to search for the boy. Lights were set up and a mechanical digger was rushed to the scene. Adverse weather conditions hampered operations.
The pit is about 40ft high and 40ft wide and is located some way off the main road. Initial reports indicated that the boys had been using motorcycles in the area but gardaí later denied this, saying they were just digging near the pit when it collapsed.
At one point during the rescue effort, the digging stopped and the generators were switched off in an effort to listen for the boy's mobile phone which was rung. But no sound was heard.
At around 8.30 p.m. the boy's body was uncovered by the diggers from under several feet of sand.
Emergency services attempted to resucitate him but he was pronounced dead at the scene at around 9.15 p.m. His body was removed and taken to Tullamore hospital where a post-mortem will be carried out. Gardai in Athlone have launched a preliminary investigation.
"At this stage, the details are very vague. It is too early to say for sure what happened but we will know more in due course after the investigation," said a Garda spokesman.