Search for missing Co Tyrone teenager halted

The search for a missing Co Tyrone teenager has been called off this evening, with police on both sides of the border still baffled…

The search for a missing Co Tyrone teenager has been called off this evening, with police on both sides of the border still baffled as to his whereabouts.

A Garda spokesman said the search would continue in the morning.

Brendan Rushe
Brendan Rushe disappeared last Monday

Brendan Rushe (15) from Castlederg went missing after a disco at the Abbey Hotel in Donegal town on Sunday night. He was last seen at about 4 a.m. on Monday when he talked to gardaí, giving them his name and address.

Gardaí and volunteers from Castlederg were joined in the search by more than 100 Coast Guard personnel, a Garda sub-aqua unit, a Garda sniffer dog unit, and two British army units.

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Specialist search units from counties Cavan, Monaghan, Sligo and Leitrim were also called in, a Garda spokesman said this morning. As well as combing the Castlederg and border area, gardaí were searching Donegal Bay in the Lough Mourne and Lough Eske area and along Barnesmore Gap.

Gardai have said they are investigating a possible sighting of the missing youth at a bed and breakfast on the outskirts of Donegal early on Monday.

A teenager knocked on the front door of the B&B on Ballyshannon road shortly before 5 a.m. When the occupants did not answer, he walked back towards the town.

A motorist saw a young man at Donegal town quay around half an hour later.

"There is still no sign of him and his disappearance remains a mystery," a PSNI spokesman said. "It could be the case that he was abducted or simply that he got lost and went to sleep somewhere outside and suffered hypothermia."