Tributes paid to 11-year-old boy who drowned in river

Tributes have been paid to an 11-year-old boy who died after getting into difficulty in water last month.

Emergency services were called to the Alexander Hamilton Memorial Park in Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire, on Saturday, July 24.

Dean Irvine was recovered from the Avon Water, also known as the River Avon, which runs through the park and was pronounced dead at the scene.

On Thursday, around 100 local residents, friends and family gathered to pay their respects in Fleming Way, near the 11-year-old’s family home in the Hillhouse area of Hamilton.

Many wore green, including Celtic shirts, with flares of the same colour set off as the hearse moved off.

Relatives and friends had the word “Deano” printed on the back of their football tops along with the number 11.

The crowds applauded and set off fireworks as the hearse carrying the coffin left the area with a convoy of cars following towards Celtic Park.

Some cars in the convoy played the club anthem You’ll Never Walk Alone, with the words also on a card beside the coffin and flowers reading Deano, Son, Brother beside a bouquet made into a football.

Club staff gathered at the stadium to applaud the cortege, which then continued to a funeral home in Hamilton.

The 11-year-old was one of seven people to die after getting into difficulty in Scotland’s waters in a single week.

Edina Olahova, 29, Rana Haris Ali, nine, and Muhammad Asim Riaz, 39, died after getting into difficulty in Loch Lomond, near Pulpit Rock, on Saturday, July 24.

A 13-year-old boy lost his life in water at Hazelbank in Lanark the same day, while a 16-year-old boy died at Balloch at the south end of Loch Lomond the previous day.