A three-year-old girl drowned yesterday while playing with other children on the banks of a disused canal near where she lived in Co Monaghan.
The alarm was raised after the girl, named locally as Eva O'Reilly, went missing at around lunch-time yesterday and several locals joined gardaí in a search of nearby woodland in the Cortolvin View area of Monaghan town.
Not long after the search began, the child was found floating in the canal a few hundred yards from her home.
A garda jumped into the water and attempted to revive the girl while waiting for the emergency services.
Eva was rushed by ambulance to Monaghan General Hospital but despite efforts to resuscitate her, was pronounced dead by doctors at around 4.30 p.m. Eva was originally from Russia and had been adopted by an Irish couple two years ago. The family also have twin boys aged 5½.
Neighbours, several of whom had joined in the search, spoke last night of the shock in the community of losing Eva. "She was such a lovely little girl," said one woman.
The wooded area surrounding the spot were Eva was taken from the water is in very boggy terrain while the canal water was also very high at the time.
The Old Ulster Canal runs alongside the Clones Road out of Monaghan but has not been used for many years. Locals said there had been repeated calls for the canal to be fenced off from the public.