Police searching for a 16-year-old boy who got into difficulty while swimming in a Cambridge lake have found a body. Emergency services had launched a search operation at Burnside Lakes following reports a teenage boy got into difficulty while swimming on what was Britain's hottest day of the year.

Cambridgeshire Police said it was called by the ambulance service at 5.26pm on Monday reporting concerns for a teenager in the water at Burnside Lakes in Cherry Hinton, just outside Cambridge. The force said search teams recovered a body from the lake at about 1pm on Tuesday.

A spokesman said: “It is believed the boy, who is 16 and from the Essex area, was swimming in the lake with a group of friends when he got into difficulty. While formal identification is yet to take place, it is believed to be that of the missing boy and his family have been notified.”

Police and rescue teams at the scene at Burnside Lakes in the Cherry Hinton area of Cambridge, where a teenage boy got into difficulty in the water. | James Linsell Clark / SWNS

Burnside Lakes, a site of former chalk pits closed since the 1950s, is not accessible to the public, with signs around the fenced area warning of deep water.

The Met Office reported that Cambridge recorded the highest temperature of the year so far on Monday, reaching 34.8C. This surpasses the previous 2024 record of 32.0C, which was set on July 30 in London at both Kew Gardens and Heathrow.

Burnside Lakes: Body recovered from Cambridge lake in search for missing 16-year-old