A local newspaper has published an exclusive photograph of a man holding a baby he saved from drowning in a tragedy which killed five members of her family.

The bi-weekly Derry News printed the picture of Davitt Walsh holding four-month-old Rioghnach-Ann McGrotty on the front page of a special edition published yesterday.

Five of Rioghnach-Ann’s family, from Derry, died on Sunday when a jeep they were travelling in slipped off a pier at Buncrana, in County Donegal.

But she survived after Mr Walsh swam out from the pier in a bid to save them.

The News devoted 11 pages to the tragedy – which claimed the lives of Sean McGrotty, 48, his two sons Mark, 12, and eight-year-old Evan, the boys’ grandmother Ruth Daniels, 59, and her 14-year-old daughter Jodie-Lee.

Mr McGrotty’s partner, Louise James, returned from a trip to England on Sunday evening to find out that her two sons, her partner, her mother and her little sister had all died in the tragedy.

The News was the only newspaper to get a photograph of the baby being reunited with her saviour.

Editor Ciaran O’Neill said: “It is such a sad story from so many different angles. There is the obvious loss of so many lives and the devastation that this has caused so many people.

“The fact that three of the victims were so young only added to the heartbreak.

“It was a story that affected everyone, including our own staff who all live and work in the local community.

“It has rightly been described as a dark week in Derry’s history and it was important that we reflected this sense of loss and sadness in this week’s paper, whilst also highlighting the positive story of little Riognach’s rescue and the hope that this has given her family.”

The back page of today’s special edition of the Derry News