FEARS were growing for a missing teenager last night after a summer's day swim turned to tragedy sparking a full-scale emergency.

Police, fire crews, paramedics and the air ambulance were deployed to the River Wear at Witton Park, near Bishop Auckland, after reporters that swimmers were in trouble.

Emergency services managed to rescue six people but a seventh swimmer - believed to be a teenage boy - could not be found.

Last night search-and-rescue teams and river rescuers in canoes were continuing to scour the river banks in pouring rain after the summer heat gave way to torrential downpours.

Local people said the spot was a favourite for local children to play by the river in warm weather.

One said: "Kids are playing there all the time. It isn't unusual to see them swimming - but no had any idea that something like this could happen. It's a tragedy."

As well as the North-East Air Ambulance, fell rescue volunteers were also drafted in to help search the river banks.

A police spokesman said emergency services were called just before 5pm.

He said: "Several people have been rescued from the river, but it is believed that one is currently unaccounted for.

“Officers are currently supporting the families of those involved."

The Wear is a notoriously dangerous river with fast flowing waters and swirling eddies capable of catching out even experienced swimmers.

In 2012, eight-year-old Ian Bell drowned after falling into the river at Sunnybrow, not far from his home. Friends and family raised more than £3,000 to buy lifebelts, which have been installed along a three-mile stretch of the river.

Two years ago, teenagers Tonibeth Purvis, 15, and her friend, Chloe Fowler, 14, died after getting into difficulty in the river at Washington during a July heat wave.

Their deaths were used as part of a national campaign in 2014 to deter young people from entering the water to cool off during hot weather.