Boy, 14, dies after getting into difficulty swimming in the River Wear in County Durham as the UK's weather claims four lives 

A 14-year-old boy died when he got into difficulty while swimming in the River Wear.

Cameron Gosling's body was recovered from the river in Witton Park, County Durham, late on Sunday night after going missing during the afternoon.

Tributes to 'lovely' Cameron were left on the riverbank, where children are often seem swimming when the weather is hot.

His tragic death came as fierce thunderstorms and heavy rain took three other lives over the weekend, with the two walkers killed on the Brecon Beacons and a man found dead off Hove, East Sussex, after apparently getting into difficulty in the sea.

Tragic: Cameron Gosling died after getting into difficulty while swimming in the River Wear as Britain's wild weather claimed four lives

Forecasters warned that the mixed bag of weather is not yet over, with Britain experiencing a north/south divide this week as further rain and storms lash the north of England, while the south basks in sunshine.

Specialist river teams spent the night searching the water for Cameron, with Durham Police confirming his death yesterday morning after informing his family.

A police spokeswoman said: 'A body has been recovered from the River Wear by officers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy.

'Police divers discovered the body in the river in Paradise Park, Bishop Auckland, close to the spot where a 14-year-old boy got into difficulty.'

Tributes to 'lovely' Cameron were today left on the riverbank, where children are often seem swimming when the weather is hot

Cameron's body was recovered from the river in Witton Park, County Durham, just before midnight on Sunday after going missing

In 2013 two other teenagers, Tonibeth Purvis, 15, and Chloe Fowler, 14, died after also getting into difficulty in the river at Washington during a similar hot spell. 

Cameron's mother Fiona was too upset to speak from her home in Crook, County Durham, yesterday.

A neighbour of the family prison officer Adrienne Hutton, 55, said: 'I'm in complete shock, they are such a lovely family and that poor boy, my heart goes out to them.

'I feel sick. He was no bother at all. You think with boys you would get a lot of noise but that was never the case. They camped outside a lot and played on the trampolines, they were no trouble at all.

'They have lived here for a couple of years, they loved living in the area and seemed really happy. 

'This is just devastating news. I was upstairs last night and saw police cars outside but I never once thought something would have happened to Cameron.'

Meanwhile father-of-four Darren Hobson revealed the moment he frantically rescued his three-year-old twin daughters and two other children after lightning struck the family home while they were asleep. 

Blown off: The roof was completely destroyed on Darren Hobson's property in Braintree, Essex, after lightning struck the family home in the early hours of Saturday. Mr Hobson had to rescue his young twin daughters, two other children and wife after the lightning bolt hit at 2am

Hero father: Mr Hobson (left) rescued his family from their Essex home after it caught alight when it was struck by a lightning bolt on Saturday

Carnage: Bricks and rubble could be seen both inside and outside Mr Hobson's Essex property after it was hit by lightning on Saturday

Mr Hobson, 39, bundled his twin girls Isobel and Jessica out of the property in Braintree, Essex, after it caught alight when struck by lightning in the early hours of Saturday.

It came as mother-of-three Kirisanthy Baratheepan revealed her family had been left homeless after lightning hit their new home in Birstall, Leicestershire, just hours before they were due to move in.  

News of further storms came as Mr Hobson today spoke of the moment he realised lightning had hit the roof of his Essex property at about 2am on Saturday, while his twin girls were asleep in their bedroom in the loft.

He managed to rescue them along with his two other children, five-year-old Jacey and 13-year-old Kristie, as well as his wife Sarah, just minutes before the whole upstairs of the property collapsed.

Mr Hobson said: 'We heard this loud bang and the room was lit up with blue. Jacey started crying and we thought she was just afraid.

'I went up the stairs to comfort her, but when I went to switch on the light it exploded.

'Then all the lights along the hall popped as well. As I was ducking from the glass, I saw the flames in the loft.'

The family managed to escape the blaze unharmed and Mr Hobson ran back into the house several times to turn the gas off and rescue the family's passports and photos.

He added: 'If Jacey hadn't have started crying, we would have a very different scene here. In about two minutes the whole roof went up.'

The fire service arrived shortly afterwards and the side of the roof collapsed while two of the firefighters were inside.

Mr Hobson said none of the firefighters were hurt and added that his family were very lucky.

He said: 'The firemen were fantastic. They even managed to save a photo of my dad.

'Everyone is fine, although shocked. The children are really sad that they have lost all their toys and their Peppa Pig bedsets.'

It came as Kirisanthy Baratheepan, who had been due to move into her new Leicestershire property with her husband and three children on Sunday, began counting the cost of the storm damage.

The family's new home in Birstall, Leicestershire, caught fire after being hit by lightning at 2.40am on Saturday morning – just hours before their planned move-in date of Sunday morning.

Mrs Baratheepan was in tears on Sunday after arriving to see the damage, instead of moving her husband and three children into the property.

Her brother, Jay Rasiah, 46, said: 'They're all devastated.

'The whole roof is gone and we're advised not to go inside. My sister is staying at my house but all her stuff was in the house.

'They'd left at 11pm on Friday with everything set up, and then, on Saturday morning, I got a call from their lettings agent.' 

Devastating: Jay Rasiah, 46, the brother of Kirisanthy Baratheepan who was due to move into the house that was struck by lightning in Birstall, Leicestershire early on Saturday morning, stands in front of the damaged property which is expected to cost thousands of pounds to repair

Stormy: A late night electric storm explodes over the Blackpool waterfront on Sunday night, with lightning cracking behind the Blackpool tower

Dramatic: Warm weather has led to thunder and lightning storms breaking out across the UK - with these images taken over Bournemouth

Neighbours, already woken by the thunder, called the emergency services after seeing and smelling smoke coming from the property that is now without a roof.

Lee Colver, 37, who lives two doors away, said: 'It was so lucky it struck an empty house.

'I think it's the only house on the street that's unoccupied - most houses around here were full of families asleep.

'We were watching the storm and there was one ridiculously big thunderclap that set off all the alarms at the shops across the street.

'I was about to go to bed when I saw what looked like fog rolling down the road.

'I realised it was a fire and called 999. Luckily, the fire station is just up the road and they were there in 10 minutes.

'We were all standing out in the street in the pouring rain watching the flames start to burn through the roof as the fire brigade arrived.'

Last week, several other properties were damaged after being blasted by lightning and more than 57,000 homes were without power after fierce thunderstorms ripped across the country following the hottest day in 12 years. 

Separate lightning bolts hit hikers as they climbed in the Brecon Beacons over the weekend, killing two and leaving another pair needing hospital treatment.

One walker, who was leading was leading children on a Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme, was found by Army cadets and the Brecon Mountain Rescue team, who were on a training exercise nearby.

They gave the man, who has not yet been named, CPR but it is believed he died instantly from the lightning strike.

The accredited assessor was on the peak of Corn Du - ready to mark 15 teenagers after their climb to the top - when he was struck by a lightning bolt in a sudden and violent electric storm.

The second man also died instantly after being struck while enjoying a Sunday afternoon walk up the Cribyn peak. A third man hit suffered paralysis down one side of his body while the fourth remains in a serious condition.

Mark Jones, deputy team leader of the Brecon rescue team, said: 'It was very violent, very loud and quite incredible because it was all over so quickly. I've been in Brecon Mountain Rescue for 30 years and I've never known anything like this.

'It is exceptionally unusual, and for multiple people to be hit in multiple strikes on different peaks – it is very, very rare.' 

Lightning bolt: Storms battered the country over the weekend, including at Barton-on-Sea in Hampshire (pictured), following the warm spell

Light up, light up: Lightning strikes over houses in Bournemouth on Friday night after the warm weather triggered hail and thunder storms

Marine cadet James Nunn was training on the mountain range in the beacons when the lightning struck and said it was like 'something out of a movie'.

He and colleagues spent 45 minutes helping a woman try to resuscitate one of the causalities.

He said: 'As we were climbing up we heard the lightning strike the top of the mountain.

'Conditions were really bad - I saw the flash but not the bolt.

'We ended up climbing over the top and that's when we saw a woman trying to resuscitate a man who had been struck.

'We rushed over and helped out. We carried out resuscitation for around 45 minutes until mountain rescue arrived. 

'Just heading up the mountain was pretty intense. It was like something out of a movie. It was a peaceful day at the bottom.'

Dyfed Powys Police have not yet named the two men who died because not all relatives have been informed  

Elsewhere, emergency services confirmed that a man, aged in his fifties, had died after getting into trouble in the English Channel on Saturday afternoon.

Lifeguards spotted the man face down in the sea before his body was dragged to the bed of the ocean by the current.

RNLI volunteers and lifeguards spent 20 minutes searching for the man before pulling him onto the shore where he was given CPR after going into cardiac arrest. 

The man was found in his t-shirt and jeans leading locals to speculate that the man, who it is believed was with friends, had become unconscious before being dragged underwater at about 4.30pm on Saturday.

The emergency services spent around 30 minutes trying to resuscitate him in front of horrified beach-goers but it emerged he later died in Royal Sussex County Hospital.

Forecasters said that while the stormy conditions have been triggered by the humid weather, the country could well see further heatwave-like temperatures by the end of the week.

However, the conditions are likely to be a tale of two halves – with the north of England expected to endure heavy rain and thunder until Wednesday, while the south remains fairly dry.

Forecasters predict the warm, dry weather will continue in the south and south east, broken up by some patchy showers, while storms are likely in much of the north and west of England, Wales and Scotland until around Wednesday.  

Stormy scenes: A patchwork of hay meadows catch glimpses of sunlight near Stainmore, Cumbria, yesterday as rain continues in the north

Sunshine and showers: Daisies add a brighter feel to the slopes of Stainmore, Cumbria, where dark, leaden clouds loom over the Eden Valley

Downpours: Temperatures are set to plummet as showers herald a return to more traditional British weather - but the heatwave could be back by Friday, it has been revealed. Shoppers are pictured sheltering under an umbrella on Regent Street in London during showers on Sunday

John Griffiths, a forecaster for MeteoGroup, said: 'If you drew a line between Lincolnshire and Bristol then everything below that line is going to be nice and dry and over that line it will get wetter and wetter the further north you go.

'There is quite a big split over the country. In the south east and south coast there will be some patchy rain but some good sunny spells and it will be mainly dry.

'There is a big band of showery rain pushing north west from Ireland during the day today and covering northern parts of Cornwall and Wales. It should reach Scotland by the afternoon.' 

While conditions across the whole of the UK will improve towards the end of the week, the mercury is unlikely to hit the dizzying highs of last week's record-breaking temperatures of 36.7C (98.1F).

The Met Office said temperatures would hover around 23C in London and the south east yesterday, while northern England and parts of Scotland up to Aberdeenshire were set to see up to 20C.

Temperatures will drop slightly mid-week thanks to a cooler north-westerly air flow before picking up by Friday when the mercury could soar to 29C.

Daniel Panton-King, a Met Office forecaster, said: 'There is a little bit of a difference in the weather this week compared to last and temperatures will now stay around average before rising at the weekend.

'There is a band of high pressure developing to the south east, so it will feel warmer and there will more sunshine around towards the end of the week.'

MeteoGroup forecaster John Lee added: 'Generally, it's going to be quite unsettled on Sunday and the first part of the week.

'By Wednesday it will start to settle down and the sunshine will come out.

'It certainly won't be the 37C highs that we had last week but I think that is a relief to most people.

'We could start to see temperatures reaching 29C though by the end of the week.'

It comes as forecasters revealed temperatures in Britain this summer could yet reach a staggering 39C with forecasters predicting another heatwave warmer than that which struck last week.

Forecasters said hot conditions currently in the Africa area and are due to reach Britain later this month, when temperatures could top the country's 2003 record temperature of 38.5C.

Forecaster Brian Gaze, of The Weather Outlook, said: 'The year's hottest temperatures usually occur in late July or early August.

'As pressure models favour more African hot air over Europe pulsing to the UK, the 38.5C record could go.'

• Was your house struck by lightning? Contact us on 020 3615 2343 or email emma.glanfield@mailonline.co.uk.