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A TEENAGE girl and her secret Muslim boyfriend drowned after falling in a canal during a night out.
Sara Rylance, 17, and Fayz Uddin, 18, were walking alongside a deep lock when he slipped over the edge. Sara tried to help but ended up also falling into the icy water.
The bodies of the pair, who kept their relationship quiet due to cultural differences, were pulled from the canal soon after.
A friend of Sara’s said last night: “They had been together for a few months but kept it a secret because he was supposed to be with a Muslim girl.”
Fayz, a waiter, and Sara, a schoolgirl, had been celebrating the Hindu festival of Diwali on Wednesday night by letting off fireworks with friends by the canal.
They wandered off together but Fayz fell into the 20ft deep water. When Sara reached down to pull him out of the high-sided lock, she fell in herself.
Friends about 200 yards away heard her screaming but the couple had been pulled underwater before they could reach them.
Emergency services arrived at the lock, in Smethwick, Birmingham, minutes later and managed to get them out of the water but attempts to resuscitate them failed.
The friend, who was there when they were pulled out, added: “Apparently they had all been drinking. The fire brigade and the police came pretty soon afterwards. They dragged them out of the water and they started pumping their chests but they were lifeless, they just did not move.
“It was a horrible sight which will stay with me for a long time. It is so sad. Sara was an amazing girl, she was always kind and smiling.
“I can’t believe she has gone but it makes sense she died trying to save someone. That’s the kind of girl she was.”
Sara’s devastated dad Anthony said last night: “All I can say is that I am shocked to the core at what’s happened.”
Fayz’s father Gias Uddin added: “It was such a shock and so upsetting for us all.”
Fayz’s best friend Saif Ali Aamer, 17, said: “Everyone is still in so much shock. His family are baffled and don’t even know exactly what happened.”
Tributes to the couple, both from Smethwick, were left on Facebook yesterday. Sarah Louise Handley wrote on Sara’s page: “We are so proud of you for trying to save the one you love, It takes great strength and courage. Your so brave baby girl for riskin your own life.”
West Midlands Fire Service operations commander Pete Millane, said last night that it would have been difficult for anyone to survive in such cold water.
He said: “The water in these locks is very cold this time of year and at that time of night and it quickly takes a toll on the human body.
“Both the boy and the girl were unconscious when we pulled them out.”
Teenage girl dies trying to rescue her boyfriend from canal - mirror.co.uk
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