Gardaí are treating an incident in which five people, including three children, died in Co Donegal night after an SUV left a pier as a tragic accident.
Six people were in an Audi Q7 when it went into the water at Buncrana Pier at about 7.30pm.
A four-month old girl was rescued by a bystander who swam into the water after the SUV slipped off the pier. The child was handed or thrown out of a window as the car careered into the water.
The baby was taken to nearby Letterkenny Hospital where she is currently in a stable condition.
The bodies of a woman (57), who is understood to be from the Shantallow area of Derry, her 15-year-old daughter, the 46-year-old partner of another daughter, who is originally from the Creggan area, and his two children, two boys aged eight and 12, have been recovered.
The mother of the children had been on a “hen weekend” in England at the time of the tragedy.
Supt Colm Nevin praised the “exceptional bravery” of the man who rescued the baby girl who is now “in Letterkenny general Hospital and doing very well”.
Supt Nevin said relatives of the family, who are from Derry, had all been notified.
He said postmortems on the victims were underway at Letterkenny hospital. Gardai were treating the deaths “as a very tragic incident”, he said.
Supt Nevin said a number of witnesses had come forward but appealed for anyone else with information to bring it to gardaí
He described the tragedy “as one of the biggest experienced here in north Donegal for a long, long time”.
A major air and sea search was mounted and the bodies of two adults and three children of primary school age were recovered.
Witnesses said the vehicle, a Northern Ireland registered Audi Q7, may have been attempting to turn on the pier when it fell into the water.
Local man Francis Crawford told media he talked to the driver before the incident when the SUV was in a precarious position.
“We like to go out for a run after dinner, we love going down to to the pier looking over the Swilly. I saw a car slightly off the ramp and said if they don’t come back they’re not going to get a grip on the ramp,” he said.
Risked his life
He said he shouted to the driver, who had the window down. “He said phone the coast guard, phone the coast guard,” Mr Crawford said he phoned 999 and they said help was on the way.
“The car was bobbling in the water at this stage, a good bit out.
“A man came along then, he’s from Kerrykeel, I said can you swim, he said I can. He swam out to the car, really risked his life. Came back with the wee baby.
“I was hoping the car would stay afloat, but all of a sudden it just went under. Within 10 minutes the family was all gone except the wee baby.”
“It was heart rending, harrowing to witness it. This man was still shouting to me when the car went down,” he said.
Mr Crawford said the rescue services arrived very quickly but there was “nothing anybody could do, it all happened so quick.”
Garda sources said while the inquiry into the deaths was in its early stages, it appears the vehicle may have accidentally reversed off the pier, which may have been covered in algae or slippery.
The slipway is used for the Buncrana to Rathmullan ferry service which operates during the summer.
Garda investigation
However, the same sources stressed that it would take time to piece together precisely how the car entered the water. The scene where the incident occurred remains sealed off and was expected to remain closed for several days as gardaí carry out a technical examination.
Two lifeboats from Lough Swilly and Greencastle, a helicopter from Sligo, gardaí, ambulances, the fire brigade and local fishing boats were all involved in the rescue mission which lasted for several hours.
The Audi SUV was taken from the water at about 9pm and gardaí covered the vehicle over before it was taken from the scene.
CCTV footage from the surrounding area and statements from those who witnessed the incident were being gathered in the town on Sunday .
Numbness in area
Buncrana priest Fr John Walsh paid tribute to the emergency services for the respect and dignity with which they handled the tragedy. “The emergency services and many locals all made heroic efforts to help.” He also praised the ‘quick thinking’ of whoever had pushed the baby from the car.
Former Sinn Féin TD Padraig Mac Lochlainn said when he first heard emergency services he hoped it was a training exercise.
“I saw the activity and had been receiving texts so I went down to the pier. It was a full scale rescue, there was a helicopter with spotlights over the water, RNLI lifeboats, fire bridgades, gardaí and ambulances.
“There is a numbness in the area. Buncrana and South Inisowen has suffered grieviously from road accidents. It was poignant that some of the families who suffered road tragedies in the past were there on the pier last night. Tragedy has visited our community.
“I was hoping and praying that the information was wrong - people were still gathering up to midnight when it became obvious that it was a very serious tragedy.”
Local Sinn Féin councillor Jack Murray said people were numb after the incident which reminded many of a car crash in the Inishowen area in 2010 in which eight people were killed.
“I was in my house and I began to hear sirens a lot of activity. The texts messages started to go off and I came down to the pier,” he said.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with this family at this time and their relatives. It’s just awful.”
Tragedy of enormous magnitude
Fianna Fáil councillor Rena Donaghy, who is from Buncrana, told the BBC it was a “tragedy of enormous magnitude”.
She said: “I’ve been standing at the pier with so many others from the town looking out at blue flashing lights on the water in a state of complete shock.
“People here can’t believe what they’re hearing, can’t believe what they’re seeing.” She described how the town had been “buzzing with people” before the incident, many of whom had arrived to enjoy the weather.
“It was so scenic and happy and now happiness has turned to tragedy,” she added.
Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness was among those who expressed sadness at the tragedy on social media.
“My thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected by the devastating tragedy unfolding in Buncrana this evening,” he said.
“Our thoughts and appreciation must also be with the emergency services who have had to deal with this tragic situation.”
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood described the news as "heartbreaking".
