An Irishman on his honeymoon in Laos has died in a rafting accident.

Irish hotel manager Michael O’Sullivan, 39, from Blackpool, County Cork, was swept away in the Nam Song river while on a river tubing trip with his wife, Ilana James.

O’Sullivan and James, who is from New Zealand, were married last November, and took a delayed honeymoon break this month in Laos.

James was part of the search team that discovered her husband’s body on Saturday, two days after the Irishman went missing.

O’Sullivan’s body was found trapped under a ledge along the banks of the river and was taken to the capital city of Vientiane.

The newlyweds were part of a tourist group visiting Vang Vieng, a small village in northern Laos that is popular among travelers.

River tubing is a typical activity for tourists to partake in, but the usually calm Nam Song river was flooded with fast-moving waters when O’Sullivan’s group took their trip in a giant inner tube.

“Last Thursday the river was in flood and just as darkness was falling Michael got caught in a current and was carried away in the dark after attempts by three men to get him to shore failed," O’Sullivan’s sister Stephanie told the Irish Examiner.

"He waved at his wife and then he was quickly gone.”

She went on to explain that attempts to save O’Sullivan were made impossible due to the fact that in Laos, there is no twilight, and day turns into night extremely quickly.

The 19 other members of the rafting group made it safely out of the river.

Michael O’Sullivan’s brother John has flown into Laos to make arrangements to bring the body home to Ireland.