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The three men in a small white rowing boat beached at the top of a mill race next to the Egypt Mill Hotel, before turning over in fast running water at night.

The incident was filmed and uploaded to internet TV site YouTube.

Although all three managed to get out of the Nailsworth stream safely, Tally Giampa, a group manager of Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, said what they had done was “incredibly dangerous”.

“Firefighters undergo specialist training in swift water rescue and recognise how dangerous these conditions can be,” he said.

“To actually go into swift water without any kind of water safety equipment is incredibly dangerous.

“The message to young people is to stay away from the water unless it is an appropriately supervised environment.”

Severn Area Rescue Association's Sharpness lifeboat coxswain Geoff Dawes said: “Our role in the lifeboat station is to get to people in tidal waters but having said that, anyone who goes into fast flowing water at night, without life jackets, is courting disaster and disaster will catch them up very quickly.”

The film, entitled Drunk guys in boat at Egypt Mill Nailsworth was added three weeks ago and has been viewed more than 100 times.

Carolyn Hilton, spokeswoman for Egypt Mill, had not seen the video until contacted by The Citizen but said it solved a mystery for her.

“We found the rowing boat upturned on the weir,” she said.

“We did not know how it got there. It's the first incident we have been aware of. Maybe they decided to try and row all the way down the river.”

The boat is no longer at Egypt Mill. The Nailsworth Stream is a tributary of the River Frome, which leads in to the river Severn.

Stretches of the Frome are navigable by small craft, further downstream at Ebley but experts said they were not aware of anyone trying to navigate its upper reaches with a more suitable craft such as a canoe.

“I have never heard of anyone doing so,” said a spokesman for Stroud Valley Canoe Club. “There are one or two places on the Frome which can be awkward, and it's a very “adventurous” activity to do without any knowledge.


08:00 - 11-July-2008

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/latestnews/Experts-condemn-boat-pranksters/article-215894-detail/article.html