A GIRL who drowned in the River Irwell while out playing with friends died as a result of an accidental death, an inquest has ruled.

Shukri Yayhe Abdi lost her life in June 2019 when a girl she entered the river with lost contact with her.

The 12-year-old Bury resident had come to the UK with her mother in January 2017 from Somalia.

The four children she was with on the day of her death have been referred to as Child One, Child Two, Child Three and Child Four.

All four and Shukri attended Broad Oak Sports College, now known as Hazel Wood High.

An inquest at Rochdale has heard Shukri had left school with the intention of going swimming with Child One and Child Two and they met Child Three and Child Four by chance along the way.

The court was told Child One went into the river first and invited Shukri to join her.

It was unclear during the inquest what she knew of Shukri's ability to swim and the two of them lost contact with each other.

Coroner Joanne Kearsley ruled that Child One knew she could not swim.

Contact was lost when Child One went under the water which caused Shukri to panic, and get on top of Child One who then pushed her off.

She accepted there was a duty of care from Child One and this was breached, but ruled this fell short of gross negligence manslaughter.

Mrs Kearsley said: "Child One was naive, she was foolish, she thought she thought she could teach Shukri to swim, that was ill considered.

"She has no intention of causing her harm. At its highest this was a serious error of judgement. "

Her conclusion was that Shukri's death was accidental.

She also said the suggestion it was murder was "extremely unhelpful" given the "vulnerabilities of Child One."

The inquest also heard previously Child One had said "you had better get in the water or I'll kill you" to Shukri as they made their way to the river and that Child One and Child Two laughed once Child One came back to rocks at the riverside.

The coroner rejected the suggestion these events were malicious.

She said the laughing was "inappropriate not malicious" and took place before they realised the seriousness of the situation and the line "I'll kill you" should be seen as coming from an exuberant teen.

In the aftermath of the contact being lost Child Four jumped in to try and save Shukri and Child Three ran to the nearby police station. Their actions were praised by the coroner.

She also said to Shurki's family: "What I sincerely hope for Mrs Ture and the family, that having heard my findings they can instead focus their thoughts on the memories they have of Shukri, who was a beautiful young girl.