A 26-year-old Irish national has been found dead in a freezing Alpine river three days after he went missing as he travelled through Switzerland.
The body of Justin Flannery was discovered after a huge search by mountain rescue teams, sniffer dogs, and maritime police, according to local media.
Flannery – from County Sligo – was reported missing on Friday, 12th May.
He was last seen in the Alpine valley village of Lauterbrunnen, which is surrounded by steep cliffs and waterfalls.
One – Staubbach Falls – rises to almost 1,000 feet.
His twin, Jonathan Flannery, said it was suspected that his brother had been “swept away” by the fast-moving ice-cold river.
Flannery’s family flew to Switzerland to help the police search over the weekend.
His body was found by a police search team on Monday evening (15th May).
Bern Cantonal police announced on 16th May that Flannery’s body had been found in the Weisse Luetschine river.
They said: “The forces of the maritime police rescued the man from the water and could only confirm that he was dead.”
Twin Jonathan created a GoFundMe page before his brother’s body was found asking for donations to help bring him home.
At the time of writing, it had raised over EUR 60,000 (GBP 52,000), far exceeding its original EUR 15,000 (GBP 13,000) goal.
Jonathan said on the page: “My twin brother Justin has been traveling Switzerland when he went missing on Friday the 12th. It’s thought that he has been swept away in the river in Lauterbrunnen.
“A number of family members have flown to Switzerland to search, but we have been advised that in order to search the river we require specialist sonar equipment.
“We are hoping to raise funds to search for Justin and to support his transfer home.
“It is all very unknown at the moment, we appreciate any little support and your thoughts and prayers.”
And he posted an update on 15th May saying: “Update from police station 15.05.2023.
“Police search team of 10 persons have searched and completed the river by foot, water & drone.
“They have advised to be very careful as the water has a strong current & is extremely cold.
“We asked to join there search team but they are only doing this by specialist.
“Due to the law and insurance policies we are not allowed to join their search teams. They have asked that we respect this.
“The helicopter is not an option as it would not be appropriate due to the location trees etc.
“The only option we have is to hire local kayak and/or rafting teams to get onto the water ourselves. Or to pay the kayak people to go out by themselves.
“They would not supply us with any gear & recommended a local shop for us to buy our own gear.
“They are currently searching CCTV of the area.
“They are trying to organise a scanning device to search the bottom of the lake. They advised this is costly 5 to 20grand.
“In case they don’t have the funding we need to step in here. We have created a go fund me page.”
