'We're very heartbroken': Tributes paid to 'diligent student' who died in swimming tragedy

Tributes have been paid to a teenager who died after getting into difficulty while swimming in County Meath on Friday night.

The boy, who has been named locally as 15-year-old Kofi Owusu from Dundalk in County Louth, was pronounced dead after his body was recovered from the river Nanny at Laytown during a multi-agency search and rescue operation.

A student at Coláiste Chú Chulainn in Dundalk, he had travelled to Laytown with a group of friends earlier on Friday and the alarm was raised at around 6.15pm.

Paying tribute to the popular teenager, school principal Thomas Sharkey said everyone at Coláiste Chú Chulainn is heartbroken.

"Kofi Owusu was a fine young man, a very kind, a very caring and a very diligent student," he told RTÉ News.

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Mr Sharkey added that Kofi, who sat the Junior Certificate earlier this month, was an "excellent sportsman" and had played a number of sports at a high level.

"He had just played in an All-Ireland basketball final and in a Leinster soccer final in his age group of under-16. He finished his Junior Cert exams only 10 days ago, and his older sister was a past pupil of our school. Kofi and his family are in all of our thoughts."

Members of the school community will be offered support in the wake of the tragedy with assistance from the Department of Education and Youth and the National Education Psychological Service.

"The school will be opening (on Sunday) to give an opportunity to students and staff alike to come together and to support each other and to remember Kofi at this very, very sad time," said Mr Sharkey.

Investigating gardaí say they are aware that videos and photographs of Friday's incident have been posted and shared online and they are appealing to members of the public not to share them further.