The two teenagers who died after getting into difficulty in the sea off the coast of Buncrana, Co Donegal were "deeply respected" and "valued" students, their school principals have said.
Crana College and Scoil Mhuire said the deaths of Emmanuel Familola, 16, and 18-year-old Matt Sibanda, have left the community in "profound shock".
"Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and with the wider Buncrana community," the principals of the schools said in a joint statement.
"This is a tragedy that words cannot fully express."
The schools have launched Critical Incident Plans and staff are working to "provide comfort and support to students, parents, and colleagues during this extremely difficult time".
They expressed their "heartfelt" condolences to the teenagers' families "who are grieving the unimaginable loss of their cherished sons and loved ones".
"We extend our deepest gratitude to the emergency services and rescue teams for their swift and courageous response," they added.
The teenagers had entered the water to retrieve a football, a local councillor has said.
The alarm was raised yesterday afternoon after three teenagers got into difficulty while swimming near Ned's Point just outside the town.
Emmanuel was taken from the sea after a multi-agency search operation, but subsequently died in hospital in the early hours of this morning.
Matt's body was recovered from the water shortly before 10pm last night.
A third teenage boy managed to swim ashore following the incident. Gardaí said he should make a full recovery.
Emmanuel, who was from Nigeria, and Matt, who was from Zimbabwe, were living with their families in separate IPAS centres in the town.
Watch: Cllr Jack Murray says the deaths of the teenagers was a 'horrendous tragedy'
Sinn Féin's Jack Murray said the community is "absolutely devastated" following the deaths of the teens.
He said they had entered the water to retrieve a football.
"I've just visited the IPAS centre and obviously they were loved because those people in that community are absolutely devastated.
"There's no words that you can describe how hurt everybody is - their community, our community. We're as one as we grieve this horrible news," he said.
"My understanding is they were playing football, the ball went into the water and they went in after the ball ... just the innocence of kids playing football and this is the outcome.
"There's no words to describe how awful it is," he said.
"This town has not been immune from tragedies in the past has been visited with another horrendous tragedy but this community will stand together.
"There's a prayer service arranged for 4pm and I know the town will fill that chapel... It's horrendous, but we'll get through this together," he said.
Local priest Fr Francis Bradley said there was a terrible feeling of "here we go again" in Buncrana today.
"We've had so many tragedies here, far too many like this. I suppose we are a beauty spot and because of that, it's almost like there are sirens that call us into the water," he said.
"These young lads I suppose just weren't aware of the dangers. It's beautiful, yes, but there are tremendous dangers, especially when the tide is pulling out, there are huge currents.
"Unfortunately they were not able to fight that, or maybe to understand how to go along with it until they could find a little eddy where they could maybe get out of the water.
"Who knows how any of us would react in such circumstances," Fr Bradley added.
He also said there is a "great sense of loss" among the community following the deaths.
"These are new parishioners. They're not immigrants, they're new parishioners, new members of our community."
