Four teenagers drowned after the vehicle they were travelling in left a road in North Wales, a coroner has said.
The inquests into the deaths of Jevon Hirst, 16, Harvey Owen, 17, Wilf Fitchett, 17, and Hugo Morris, 18, all from the Shropshire area, were opened and adjourned in Caernarfon on Wednesday.
None of the teenagers’ families attended the brief four-minute hearing in which Kate Robertson, HM Coroner for North West Wales, stated the provisional cause of their deaths was drowning.
A major search was launched for the A-level students after they failed to return home to Shropshire from an overnight camping trip to the Snowdonia area.
The four teenagers were found dead on November 21 on the A4085 at Llanfrothen and were identified by family members.
Ms Robertson said: “This is a court that is led by evidence, speculation is unhelpful, at this stage compassion will achieve far more than media curiosity.”
The coroner offered the grieving families her “sincerest condolences” and adjourned the inquest. No date has been set for the full hearings.