Spanish inquiry into death of Irish student

THE FAMILY of an Irish student who died in Spain in unexplained circumstances were today due to travel from their home in Cork to Spain to identify his remains.

The body of Shane O’Connor, a 21-year-student from Boherbue in Co Cork, was taken from a river under a bridge on a motorway linking Barcelona to Madrid last Friday morning.

His remains were only found when police divers were called to the stretch of water near the city of Zaragoza to search for a young Spanish man who had entered the water after being hit by vehicles on the motorway bridge in the early hours of the morning.

Mr O’Connor was spending a year in the local university as part of the Erasmus exchange programme.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed it was assisting the family of a deceased Irish man but said the circumstances of his death were still unclear.

“The local police have still not established exactly what happened. They are still investigating and speaking to witnesses,” the spokeswoman said.

Local reports from Spain suggest that the Spanish teenager who died had been struck by several vehicles while walking on the motorway bridge, and was apparently thrown over a collision barrier at the side of the road and into the waters below.

It is believed Mr O’Connor went to his aid and may have jumped over the barrier, not realising there was a substantial drop on the other side into the river below.

The emergency services who arrived on the scene were apparently only aware that the Spanish man had been thrown over the barrier into the river.

However, in the course of the search for his remains they also found Mr O’Connor’s body.

The Irish Timesunderstands there was a music festival in the area last week and that the two dead men may have been returning home from it when the incident occurred.

News of Mr O’Connor’s death reached his family in Cork on Friday.