Man dies while open water swimming in lake

Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team searched the lake for signs of the missing swimmer

The body of a man in his 20s has been recovered by police divers after he got into difficulty while open water swimming in the Lake District.

The man had gone swimming at Falling Rocks in Ullswater on Friday morning and his friends called emergency services when he did not resurface.

A three-and-a-half hour search was carried out by mountain rescue, the coastguard, the fire service and the Great North Air Ambulance Service, before the man's body was found by the divers at about 14:25 GMT.

Cumbria Police said an investigation into the circumstances leading up to the man's death was continuing but it was not being treated as suspicious.

A spokesperson for Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team said it had been called at about 09:40 GMT and used a rigid inflatable boat (RIB) to search the lake.

"After several hours nothing had been found and the rescue was scaled back," they said.

"The team RIB stayed at the scene and conducted a sonar search of the area, identifying possible targets for the police dive team, who arrived at about 13:00.

"The team's thoughts are with the friends and family of the man involved."