Fun-loving Irish student drowns in Toronto lake

The 20-YEAR-OLD Irish student who drowned in a Toronto lake in a tragic accident has been named as Paraic McKeown from Co Louth.

He had been working in Canada for the summer with Irish friends and was due to return home next week, The young man had been employed by the Liberty Entertainment Group as a security guard at two of the company’s waterfront restaurants on Lake Ontario.

A Canadian colleague said yesterday he was part of a close-knit group of young, fun-loving friends.

The Irish consulate in Toronto yesterday notified Mr McKeown’s family of his death. A Canadian police spokesman said Mr McKeown, whose family live near Drogheda, had been with a group of friends camping on Centre Island in Lake Ontario.

Police received the emergency call just after 7.30am from the man’s two Irish friends. They said their pal had disappeared after they went swimming off the pier on the south of the island.

The Toronto Police marine unit rushed to the scene and emergency crews found the young man in about 8ft of water.

“Unfortunately the victim had been in the water for about 45 minutes to an hour,” said police Sgt Ron Tapley.

Toronto Police said the area was not known to be dangerous for swimmers but described conditions as choppy when search teams were alerted. “We have not had cases like this before in this area and it is unfortunate that it has occurred,” Sgt Tapley said.

No lifeguards were on duty at the spot which had not been designated for swimming, according to a spokesman.

“We managed to have one of our lifeguards dive into the water, bring him up the surface, and we immediately started CPR. We brought the victim to shore, did an emergency run to St Mike’s, but unfortunately he was pronounced dead on arrival.”

The friends had been jumping off the pier and swimming about 10 metres back and forth when a half hour into the swim the victim failed to surface.

“Nobody really knows what happened,” said Fire Captain Bruce Will, one of the first emergency workers on the scene.

“They all went in for a swim and he just didn’t come out.”