POLICE yesterday revealed the extent of the search to find an eight-year-old boy who was swept away by a river swollen by days of heavy rain.

The body of Ian Bell was found nine days after he fell into the River Wear near his home in Sunnybrow, near Willington, County Durham.

He was discovered on Sunday, May 6, by a civilian diver under instruction from the police search team three miles downstream from where he disappeared.

Yesterday, coroner Andrew Tweddle opened and adjourned an inquest into Ian’s death.

Although police began scaling back the hunt for Ian after five days as hopes faded, the man in charge of the operation, Chief Superintendent Andy Reddick, yesterday explained how concentrated the search had been.

He said officers scoured riverbanks along the 26 miles to the North Sea and that everything was done to find him as quickly as possible.

He said: “A total of 2,142 hours from our partners and other agencies emphasises the challenges we had to face to find him and how intensive this search was.

“This figure does not even comprehend the vast amount of community volunteers from the area who assisted us in the search; we once again thank them for their help and support.”

Durham Police’s search team spent more than 750 staff hours searching, while the police helicopter was in the air for a further 12 hours.

Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service personnel contributed 328 staff hours to the search.

Northumbria Police sent their underwater search team, who notched up 151 staff hours, while search and rescue teams from Teesdale and Weardale, Swaledale and North of the Tyne searched for a combined total of 649 hours.

The RNLI committed 30 hours, the Environment Agency 33 hours and the Coastguard 60 hours. The RAF was also involved in the initial stages.

A specialist team from Derbyshire, Swift Water UK, searched for 56 staff hours with an underwater camera, while the UK Civil Air Patrol group conducted aerial patrols and took photographs using a microlight aircraft.

Durham Police enlisted the help of an Oxford professor for two days, who specialised in river flow and running water to advise search teams on where to conduct more focused searches.