Anas El-Rafai died trying to save brother from drowning

A teenager who drowned trying to save his younger brother from a river has been hailed a "hero" by his family.

Anas El-Rafai, 15, was with his sibling Jamal, 13, and friends at Broken Scar in Darlington when they got into trouble in the River Tees on Monday.

Anas managed to push them to safety but the water took him away "in seconds", his older brother Mohammed said.

The family fled civil war in Syria in 2011 and moved to the UK in 2018.

"He was not a good swimmer, but he worried only about his brother and his friend, not himself," Mohammed said.

"He was not thinking he could die, just that he wanted to help."

Durham Police said the alarm was raised shortly after 17:00 BST and Anas's body was found at about midnight.

Mohammed, of Darlington, said the boys had visited the river to take photographs and had apparently gone into the water to cool down.

He thanked emergency services for their rescue effort as well as people in his local community who had offered support and condolences.

The family left Syria in 2011 and went to Lebanon, but when the situation there deteriorated they moved to the UK in 2018.

Their relatives in the Middle East were in "utter disbelief" and a "state of shock", Fran Wood, of Darlington Assistance for Refugees, said.

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