Terrified schoolboy, 12, and his friend are sucked through a PIPE after slipping in flood water on their way home

• Euan Bottomley was dragged into a pipe and ‘couldn’t breathe for five seconds’
• A flood meant Euan and his friend Luke Davies could not see it or the river
• Luke reached for Euan’s PE bag, near Holdingham, Lincolnshire, and fell too
• Stephen Bottomley, from the RAF, said ‘both lads thought they were going to die’ 

A schoolboy, 12, and his friend were sucked through a pipe after slipping in flood water walking home from school in Lincolnshire.

Euan Bottomley and Luke Davies were on their way to Euan’s house in Holdingham from Carres Grammar School when he slipped into some water on November 7.

Heavy rain flooded the track and meant both boys ‘couldn’t see the [overflowing] river or pipe’.   

But moments later Euan was dragged under water and into the pipe before being chucked out at the other side. 

Euan Bottomley and Luke Davies (pictured left and right) were walking home from school when they passed a flooded track and Euan slipped into some water before being sucked into a pipe, near Holdingham, Lincolnshire

Euan said it sucked him in ‘with a lot of force’ and he ‘couldn’t breathe for five seconds’. It gave him barely any time to hang on before being ‘fully submerged’ and swallowing water.

He told Lincolnshire Live: ‘I don’t remember putting my head up out of the water about a metre from where I came out.’ 

Seeing his friend’s PE bag in the water, Luke reached in to grab it, only to be sucked through the pipe as well.

The boys were not injured but Euan says the injury made him realise how ‘lucky’ they were. He said he could have drowned if he had been stuck or caught in a branch

Euan, who couldn’t see what had happened, noticed his bag come through the pipe, only to find some resistance.

He then realised it was Luke, who had done the same thing as him.

‘Luke told me he saw my PE bag and thought I was messing about so went to go and get it,’ he said.

His friend’s legs got pulled and he could not hold on but the two boys escaped injuries.   

Euan said the incident left him feeling ‘lucky’ and claimed: ‘If I had got stuck or a branch had been in the way I could have drowned,’ he said.

Euan and Luke did not notice the river or the pipe when they encountered the flooded track on Thursday. Stephen Bottomley, who works in the RAF, says is reporting the incident to authorities in fear that a fatality could occur if the pipe is not fixed

The shock made him a ‘bit traumatised’ and he broke down in tears telling his parents.    

Stephen Bottomley, who works in the RAF, said: ‘He told me he had been holding his breath for five to six seconds – but it felt like forever.

‘Both lads thought they were going to die.’

Mr Bottomley, 39, is reporting the incident to authorities in fear that a fatality could occur if the pipe is not fixed. 

He said: ‘What if someone does die in the next week or year? How could I live with myself if I didn’t report it?’

It needs a gate or something to make sure no one can get through,’ he added.

‘It needs a bit of metal to stop people going through or they could both be dead.

‘Both kids could have been dead and we wouldn’t have known for hours.

‘You don’t think about looking through a pipe.’

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