Hero teen from London drowned trying to save friend, inquest hears

Brave teenager: Ali Ahmed, 19, drowned trying to save a friend

A teenager from London drowned at a Scottish beauty spot as he tried to rescue a friend from strong currents around a waterfall, an inquest heard.

Ali Ahmed, 19, who was on his first holiday with friends, leapt in to save his struggling friend but was dragged under the water himself.

He and the group had been warned about the currents when they arrived at the Falls of Bruar, near Blair Atholl in Perthshire.

One of the group, 19-year-old Zein Shivli Khalifa, told Poplar coroner’s court they had been told about three-metre-deep waters in a cave at the waterfall before they got in to swim.

Mr Khalifa and Mr Ahmed went in the water first before getting out and urging a friend to jump in too. “As soon as he jumped, he went under,” said Mr Khalifa. “He swam back up and as soon as he swam up he realised the current was pushing him towards the cave and he started panicking.”

Mr Khalifa and Mr Ahmed both went after their friend and pulled him to safety, but Mr Ahmed, a fast food worker from East Ham, was sucked into the cave by the current.

Mr Khalifa told the inquest: “I was trying to swim out and our friends said, ‘what’s happened, where’s Ali?’ … Ali thought both of us were drowning so he was trying to help us and I think the current pushed him into the cave or something.

“This is the point [at which] they were shouting, ‘Ali is drowning’.”

Mr Khalifa said he tried to pull Mr Ahmed out but he was unresponsive. “I went inside trying to help him, I grabbed on to him but he was not saying anything,” he said.

Emergency services also tried to save Mr Ahmed but decided it was too dangerous to go after him. Divers recovered his body the next day.

Ruling the death on July 13 an accident, Coroner Mary Hassell said: “All of the evidence points in the direction Ali was out swimming with his friends, having a good time, and was pulled underwater by a current.

“In spite of very strenuous efforts of his friends to save him, which were very nearly successful, he succumbed to the cold and fatigue of swimming against the current and he was drowned as a consequence.”

She added that Mr Khalifa was “terribly brave for going after [his] friend”. Mr Khalifa, who met Mr Ahmed in primary school, told Tuesday’s inquest he was a “good friend” who spent a lot of time caring for his mother.

He said he was “a very curious person generally in life” and added: “His personality was about making sure if he was going to buy food and his friend didn’t have money, he would rather his friend eat than he eat.”

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