By Robert Downes A PARTINGTON dad and his three year old daughter plunged 50ft to their deaths as a family holiday to Wales ended in tragedy at the weekend.

Window cleaner James Gallacher, 35, and daughter Soraya, together fell down a steep embankment into a fast flowing river at a Welsh beauty spot near Llanbedr on Saturday afternoon.

Mr Gallacher’s partner Tracy, who was with another couple and their child, witnessed the accident and immediately alerted emergency services shortly before 4.10pm, sparking a massive search and rescue operation.

Fire service search teams were joined by police helicopter and ambulance crews, while two civilian divers staying at a nearby campsite helped scour the rock strewn stretch of water, known as Afoncwm Nantcol.

But the search, which included an RAF Sea King helicopter from RAF Valley in Anglesey, was called off around 90 minutes later after their bodies were discovered under a submerged rock face in a deep lagoon, close to where the accident happened.

Speaking exclusively to Messenger, a family friend who asked not to be named, said: “The family are just distraught. Tracy has lost her future and her whole life. It’s bad enough losing your partner, but your daughter as well - it’s really affected the whole family.

She added: “They’d been having a really nice afternoon on the beach beforehand, catching crabs and building sandcastles. They were just walking to the shops when James saw a sign for a waterfall trail. They all followed it, and then Soraya wanted to be picked up. James had just picked her up but then slipped down a grassy verge by the water fall.

“They weren’t swimming in it, they weren’t larking around. There’s been a lot of nonsense reported about what happened.”

She also said others with the party at the time risked their own lives by entering the water course and searching frantically for almost two hours before the bodies were found by divers.

Messenger understands the Health and Safety Executive have now been called in to investigate the case, and how father and child were able to fall down such a steep incline into dangerous waters.

But Aled Morgan Jones, owner of the land near the waterfall, said: “The path is clearly identifiable, and it has been open for the last 39 years, and we've had no trouble, not one accident or anything like this tragic incident before.

Adding: “The incident has shocked everybody in the local community. The pain of the family must be unbearable, and our thoughts are with the family of the young man and his daughter who died.”

An inquest into both deaths was opened and adjourned by North Wales Coroner’s Court on Monday.