A major air-and-sea search for a 14-year-old boy swept into the Irish Sea from the Co Down coast has been called off today.
Three lifeboats and a Coastguard helicopter from Dublin were working with police divers, a mountain-rescue squad and five land-based Coastguard teams.
Jordan Murdoch was with his friend, David Hackett (12), on the pier at the entrance to the harbour at Killough yesterday afternoon when one was swept into the water and it is understood the other jumped in to try to save him.
While David was pulled to safety and taken to hospital in nearby Downpatrick for treatment for shock and the effects of the cold water, nothing has been seen of Jordan.
A cap and jacket recovered last night before the search was called off because of bad weather has been identified by his family as belonging to the missing boy.
But hope faded today as the search yielded nothing. "Unfortunately we would have to say now that survival is most unlikely," said a coastguard spokesman.
The Murdoch family is understood to have only recently moved to the scenic Co Down coast from the Markets area of Belfast.
The search was being centred on Killough Bay but was later extended up and down the coast, said coastguards.