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joshua osahon

Irish teen who drowned tragically in Spanish lake named

Joshua Osahon from Portlaoise lost his life after going swimming in a lake in central Spain on Saturday afternoon.

shutterstock_371292073 Laguna Salvadora Shutterstock / Svetlana Bykova Shutterstock / Svetlana Bykova / Svetlana Bykova

AN IRISH teenager who drowned in a lake in Spain has been named as Joshua Osahon.

Joshua disappeared on Saturday evening after going for a swim at a lake called Laguna Salvadora, one of the 15 small lakes that make up the Lagunas de Ruidera Natural Park.

He was with a group of Spanish youngsters and volunteers taking part in a language course called Interway run by the Spanish Department of Education.

Police divers found his body yesterday afternoon just before 4pm.

Investigators say Joshua was a good swimmer and the area he was in was a popular bathing spot which was safe to use.

One well-placed source stated that Joshua had known how to swim.

Joshua’s parents flew to Spain late yesterday.

They jetted to Madrid and were picked up in the Spanish capital before being driven to a hospital in Albacete 250 kilometres to the south to see their son’s body ahead of the post-mortem.

Well-placed sources say the 19-year-old was born in Nigeria but had emigrated to Ireland with his family and lived in Portlaoise, Co Laois.

No-one could be reached at El Retiro de Don Quijote, the rural tourism complex consisting of seven wooden huts where he had been staying – a 50-minute drive south of the lake where he lost his life.

Francisco Garcia Cano, a councillor in the municipality of Ossa de Montiel where the tragedy occurred, confirmed the dead man’s parents had arrived in Albacete around midday today after flying into Madrid last night.

He said: “It appears the alarm was sounded as the foreign volunteers and Spaniards the Irish lad was with were picking up their belongings and heading back to their coach.

There were a lot of people in the water and they hadn’t noticed anything was amiss until they realised one of the party was missing.

Local Civil Guard confirmed the dead man was traveling on an Irish passport.

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