A teenage swimmer died after suffering an epileptic fit in a river on one of the hottest days of last year, an inquest heard.

Theodore Cole, 18, did not surface after ducking into water while with a group of friends as temperatures hit more than 80 degrees.

It is believed he suffered a fit while submerged in the River Rother in Rye on July 12 last year before his friends noticed he was missing.

The body of Hastings College engineering student Theodore, known as Ted, was found by police frogmen.

The river is about 8ft deep at its deepest and has rocks on its bed. However, friends said Theodore was a competent swimmer who never had problems in water.

One friend said he often ducked under the water and surprised people by jumping out to startle them.

Friend Joe Green, 20, whose garden backs on to the river, said: "I remember seeing his hair go under the water for the last time."

The night before the tragedy Theodore, of Rye Road, Rye, had attended a birthday party with up to 50 people aged 15 to their mid-20s where he had been drinking.

The Hastings inquest heard yesterday Theodore fell asleep at 2.30am before rising at about 9am when he was said to be "perfectly fine".

That afternoon the group took advantage of the fine weather by swimming in the River Rother.

The inquest heard Theodore was diagnosed with major epilepsy in September 1999, requiring him to take regular medication.

However, with his condition subsiding he was gradually weaned off his medication in April 2001 after being free of seizures for 18 months.

He had a couple of partial seizures after coming off the drugs too quickly yet he was considered fit and healthy.

Pathologist Walter Barnes said a post-mortem examination would not necessarily have shown whether he had suffered an epileptic fit or not.

Sometimes biting of the tongue is a sign of someone who has suffered an unobserved fit but this was not present in Theodore's case.

There was nothing to suggest he had hit his head on the bottom. Only a "trivial amount" of alcohol was found in his bloodstream, 21mg in 100ml. The legal drink-drive limit is 80mg.

East Sussex coroner Alan Craze said there had been no horseplay, that Theodore was a good swimmer in a good frame of mind on a sunny day.

Recording a death of natural causes, he said the only logical conclusion could be that he suffered a fit while swimming which caused him to drown.

Mr Craze said: "The only thing that could have caused this was the fit. He must've had a fit swimming because it would not have happened otherwise.

"There was no horsing around, it wasn't an inappropriate day to go swimming and he had done it many, many times."