Girl, 12, drowned after pal ‘joked’ with her ‘get in water or I’ll kill you’
A YOUNG girl drowned after a pal joked she would “kill” her if she didn’t get in the water, an inquest heard. Tragic Shukri Abdi, 12, went in the River Irwell near Bury town centre during last year’s heatwave when she got into difficulty. The schoolgirl, who couldn’t swim, had been with two friends when […]
A YOUNG girl drowned after a pal joked she would “kill” her if she didn’t get in the water, an inquest heard.
Tragic Shukri Abdi, 12, went in the River Irwell near Bury town centre during last year’s heatwave when she got into difficulty.
The schoolgirl, who couldn’t swim, had been with two friends when one “joked” about killing her if she didn’t get in the river moments before her death.
An inquest heard how the friend, referred to Child 1, told her guardian around three or four days after the tragedy “there is something I need to tell you”.
The guardian added: “She said when they were walking towards the river she said to Shukri ‘If you don’t get in the water I’m going to kill you’ in a laughing and joking manner’.
“She said she wasn’t sure Shukri was going to get in the water. She wanted someone else to come in the water with her.
“She felt she had done something really bad. I said we all say things we don’t mean, but said I would have to report it to the police. She was happy for me to report it.
“She knew it wasn’t the right comment to make with the way things turned out, but she wanted people to know it wasn’t meant in the way she said it.”
TRAGIC DEATH
The court heard Child 1 saw Shukri walking into the water but didn’t remember exactly what happened after that.
Just hours before, the girls had been at her home where they had dinner and “laughed and giggled like typical teenage girls”, the guardian said.
The inquest also heard from William Keenan and Steven Duckworth, who had been fishing around 500 yards away when two girls ran towards them shouting someone had fallen in.
Both men raced to the spot near a fast-running weir and dived in the river in a frantic attempt to rescue Shukri.
But tragically she couldn’t be saved and her body was discovered around four hours later.
She was the third person to drown in a matter of hours as the UK was hit with scorching temperatures in June 2019.
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Shurki’s devastated mum Zamzam Ture told the inquest how she had called police after her daughter failed to return home.
She also said the schoolgirl, who was born in a Kenyan refugee camp to Somalian parents before moving to the UK in January 2017, couldn’t swim and was “scared” of water.
The inquest continues.
