Family of Shukri Abdi speak of their grief as coroner rules schoolgirl’s death was an accident

In June last year, as a heatwave swept the country, a 12-year-old girl drowned in a river in Bury, Greater Manchester.

Shukri Abdi was swimming with other children. But she didn’t know how to swim. She only arrived in this country two years before, as part of a United Nations resettlement scheme.

Her death led to protests after her family claimed they were let down by the police investigation, alleging institutional racism that the family say blinded the police to the issue of bullying which Shukri suffered.

But today, a coroner has ruled that the death was accidental. And the Independent Office for Police Conduct says Greater Manchester Police did not treat the family less favourably because of their ethnicity. Channel 4 News has done the only broadcast interview with the family.