A teenage Afghan refugee drowned while swimming in an English river during the summer heatwave, an inquest heard.

On Friday 16 June, Haroon Armani was with a friend in the River Great Ouse at Cardington Lock in Bedford when he got into trouble.

In an attempt to find him, a boy and a girl dove in.

According to Bedfordshire senior coroner Emma Whitting, he died as a result of a misadventure and had no knowledge of open water.

A local gym pool was Mr Armani’s usual swimming venue, the inquest heard in Ampthill.

As a result of being pulled from the water, he was taken to a hospital, where he died a few hours later.

Multiple organ failure caused by drowning was recorded as the cause of death.

Mr Armani arrived in the UK unaccompanied in August 2021, according to social worker Roseanne Johnstone from Bedford Borough Council.

The inquest heard that he fled Afghanistan because he feared the Taliban, since members of his family were in the army.

The group travelling to Pakistan was smuggled in trucks through Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia, Italy and France before crossing the channel from Calais.

A leave of absence was granted to him last December.

He attended Luton’s Barnfield College while living in Bedford. The ambition of his life was to become a police officer.

According to Ms Johnstone, he was a fit, healthy, very active young man who was always smiling.

“When the weather was hot, he entered the Great Ouse. Although he had experience swimming indoors, he lacked open water knowledge and experience.