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Tragic ice game of West Yorkshire boy
A six-year-old boy drowned after he and his brother plunged through ice at a frozen West Yorkshire pond.
Ben Newell's older brother Dylan, 12, whispered "my brother, my brother" to firefighters after he had been pulled from the pond, sparking a desperate rescue effort for little Ben.
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After a frantic search, Ben was pulled from the pond in Streethouse, near Pontefract and airlifted to hospital where he was pronounced dead a few hours later.
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Yesterday as Ben's inquest West Yorkshire Coroner David Hinchliff warned of the dangers of frozen water as the country braces itself for more sub-zero weather.
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The court heard that Ben and Dylan, of Meadway, Streethouse, had been playing with a friend at the fishpond off Red Lane, on February 7 just before 2.30pm.
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Ben and Dylan went out on to the ice and were throwing stones and hitting the ice with a piece of wood when the ice broke.
Dylan was able to prop himself up on the unbroken ice but Ben slipped underneath it.
Passers by tried to rescue the boys using branches and knotted clothes before firefighters arrived at the scene and hauled Dylan out.
Firefighter Adam Smith, who played a key part in the rescue, said Dylan was shivering uncontrollably but was still able to say "my brother, my brother" as firefighters went into the water in a bid to save Ben.
By the time he was found, Ben had been in the water, which is six feet deep in places, around 30 minutes. At Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, medics spent the next four hours warming his body up.
But the Streethouse Junior and Infant School pupil never regained consciousness or showed any signs of life and was pronounced dead just after 7pm that evening.
A post-mortem report gave his cause of death as drowning and hypothermia.
The court heard that floatation devices and warning signs were
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Weather for Leeds
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -5 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Light sleet
Temperature: 0 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South
