A teenager who drowned in a lake while on a rugby trip to France was reported missing after his team got back to their hotel and realised he had been left behind, an inquest has heard. Harry Sykes was on a college trip with the Halifax Elite Rugby Academy when he died on September 5 2018.
The body of the 16-year-old, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, was recovered by divers from a lake near Carcassonne in southern France. On Monday an inquest at Bradford Coroner’s Court heard Harry and his team members had gone to Lake Cavayere on the second full day of the trip, where Harry had swum with a small group to some rocks and had then been seen playing volleyball in the water.
Coroner’s officer Jayne Dawson said Harry had last been seen alive entering the water at around 1.30pm. Ms Dawson said the team got back to their hotel at around 6pm, adding it was “only then, following a head count, they realised Harry was missing”.
