JUST as the tragic loss of a Blackburn man's life was confirmed by the recovery of his body from the reservoir in which he had gone swimming, there came shocking evidence of this very danger being ignored by youngsters plunging in another one a few miles away.

For, as the pictures in our report tonight show, teenagers were discovered larking in the waters of the Holden Wood Reservoir near Haslingden. Yet, what is even more alarming is the disclosure that lots of youngsters are risking their lives in this way every day -- without realising or caring about the danger they are in.

But as the death of 33-year-old Mitchell Bury in the Wayoh Reservoir near Edgworth is added to the grim statistics of needless drownings in rivers, streams, lakes and reservoirs -- some 320 of which happen every year -- the fatal formula behind these tragedies is now at its most dangerous.

For we have the combination of the long school holidays, hot weather and cool, inviting water mixed with high spirits, youthful adventure and ignorance and unconcern -- amounting to a perilous prescription for disaster.

Time and again, this amalgam has claimed young lives. Shockingly, drownings in open water are the third most common cause of accidental death among under-16s. And, alarmingly, the number of under-14s who died this way rocketed by 50 per cent, according to the latest figures.

Nobody wants to wrap our youngsters in cotton wool or put a damper on summer fun, but warnings of just how harmful the effects of cold water can be on the strength and stamina of even the fittest need to be spelled out again and again -- above all, by parents. For even in the hottest weather, the water in Britain's rivers, lakes and reservoirs is, we are told, likely to be barely above freezing just one metre down -- and capable of swiftly paralysing the limbs of anyone swimming in it. The warning signs are there telling of the dangers.

The message is: Don't do it. And don't let your child.