Burnsall: Man died in 12ft of water while swimming in river

BBC News

18-02-2025

A father-of-one drowned while enjoying a riverside picnic with his family, an inquest has heard.Azaz Mohmed Chanda, 33, disappeared while playing in an inflatable dinghy with relatives on the River Wharfe at Burnsall in the Yorkshire Dales National Park on 11 August.North Yorkshire Coroner's Court was told on Tuesday that 1,000 people were in the vicinity enjoying a family fun day on one of the hottest days of the summer.A firefighter who was one of the first at the scene said the depth of the river could vary from knee-high to 12ft (3.36m) and that Mr Chanda's body was recovered from the latter section.
Mr Chanda and his wife Shezmeen Khalid Munshi had been visiting the area from Blackburn with their family when he got into difficulty, the inquest was told.She said her husband had been "extremely happy" before entering the water, was fit and healthy and had learned to swim the previous year.Mrs Munshi said she felt "uneasy" when she saw the boat he had got into with his cousin and nephew return to the bank without him, and alerted emergency services.North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service crew manager Benjamin Rymer told the hearing that 15 firefighters had been called to the incident. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance also landed.
A witness statement read out to the inquest detailed how a "splash and a shout for help" had been heard before other swimmers tried to rescue Mr Chanda.Mr Rymer said the fire service had arrived within 10 minutes of the 999 call being made and they located Mr Chanda's body on the opposite side of the river from where he had entered the water.A postmortem established the cause of death as asphyxiation due to immersion in water.Senior coroner Jonathan Leach recorded a conclusion of death by misadventure and said there were no suspicious circumstances.Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.