Welsh paddleboarding incident claims fourth victim as arrest made

Woman arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter following fatalities on the River Cleddau

Flowers are left next to the River Cleddau in Haverfordwest as tribute to four paddleboarders who died on Saturday. Photo: PA

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter after a deadly paddleboarding incident on the River Cleddau in Haverfordwest, Wales.

Police said the woman was from South Wales and had been subsequently released under investigation.

They said a fourth person had died after the incident. Andrea Powell, 41, had been admitted to hospital.

Morgan Rogers, 24; Nicola Wheatley, 40; and Paul O'Dwyer, 42, died earlier in the day.

A further five people were pulled out of the river by emergency services but were not injured.

The group were from the South Wales Paddle Boarders and Salty Dog Co, an organisation in Port Talbot, and had been on a weekend trip exploring the river.

One of those on the trip, Vickie Mckinven, said O'Dwyer, a former soldier, died trying to rescue two fellow paddleboarders who got into difficulty.

Hundreds of people gathered in Port Talbot on Saturday morning in memory of O'Dwyer.

During the event, members of the Aberavon surf club, many of them close friends of O'Dwyer, took to the water despite the choppy sea.

Lee West, a business partner of O'Dwyer, paid tribute to his late friend, who was a former director of COPR Bar in Swansea and the founder of veterans' charity Sa1ute.

"He was great fun. He'd be like your corny uncle in the corner with his corny jokes," he told Wales Online.

"He was just a genuine lovely, lovely man."

Relatives of Rogers, a deputy store manager, called her "a beautiful, kind and loving soul".

Wheatley, a specialist in poisons information at the National Poisons Information Service, was described by her family as "loving mother, daughter, daughter-in-law and wife".