Tributes paid to volunteers after Lagan searches find Gary Bain and Archie Boal
The brother of a man whose body was found after four weeks of searching has thanked those who brought him home "from the bottom of my heart" for their painstaking work.
Gary Bain, aged 37, was last seen in the Ormeau Bridge area of Belfast on Wednesday 21 January.
Police said the body of Mr Bain was later recovered from the Lagan on 13 February.
A post-mortem has taken place and the death is not being treated as suspicious.
The day before he went missing, another man was reported to have entered the Lagan in Dromore, Archie (Artie) Boal, aged 75.
After extensive searches of the Lagan, a body was located in the Dromore area on Saturday, 14 February and Mr Boal's family was informed. A post-mortem is still to take place.
Johnny Bain, brother of Gary, issued an extended thank you on social media to all those who helped, singling out K9 Search & Rescue NI, the East Coast Divers and Lagan Search & Rescue.
He said: "I personally want to take a second and thank you myself from the bottom of my heart for standing shoulder to shoulder with me through the challenges it takes to get a loved one home."
And he urged everyone to "show their full respect to the people who try their best to get your loved ones".
He added that "you can all hold your heads high in knowing you served me well and I can't say thank you enough for allowing us as a family a chance at closure".
Around 300 people paid tribute on social media to the volunteer rescue teams involved.
Meanwhile, a family notice said Mr Boal, found in Dromore, was most recently from Rathfriland but formerly of Hillsborough.
It said he was a treasured dad of Darwin (Maureen), much loved Granda of Naomi, Rhys and Joshua, a dear brother of Maureen (Jim) and the late Anne (Jim) and also a loving uncle.
His funeral service is on Thursday at 11.30am in Hillsborough Presbyterian Church.
After the body of Mr Boal was found, Dromore DUP councillor Paul Rankin said his thoughts were with his family and all impacted by the tragedy.
"Thank you to the search and rescue teams for their efforts over the past few weeks in very difficult weather and conditions," he added.
Sky Watch NI - a search and rescue charity - said on 14 February that it used drones to search the Lagan at Dromore and surrounding floodplains in great detail, finding a body submerged in the river.
Working in Belfast, East Coast Divers, a community diving group, said on 13 February that a body believed to be that of Mr Bain had been located and recovered by their team onto a Community Rescue Service Belfast District boat.
Sean McCarry, Regional Commander of Community Rescue Service, paid tribute to the team of volunteers.
There were over 100 volunteers involved almost daily for 26 days, giving 2,356 hours to these searches, whilst also attending others.”
"During these two missing person searches our teams often searched from 7am until 4pm then starting again at 7am,” he said.
"Weather conditions meant that throughout the entire period we did not have a 24hr period without rain and sometimes storms passing through or freezing conditions.
"Whilst most people were wrapped up at home or asleep in their beds our teams continued the search until everyone was brought back to their families.”