Three child pool deaths in two weeks
Youngsters died in swimming pools in Orihuela Costa, Rojales and Calpe
A TWO-year-old boy drowned after falling into a community swimming pool in an urbanisation in La Zenia, Orihuela Costa on Sunday afternoon.
According to news agency Europa Press, sources explained that the toddler had managed to leave the house where he was staying on holiday with his parents and four siblings without any of them realising.
The property is located in Residencial Sonia on Calle Mayor, just a few hundred metres from Cala Bosque beach.
His parents’ 13-year-old daughter found her brother’s body in the swimming pool half an hour later.
They called the emergency services, who were unable to save his life.
The toddler’s body was taken away at around 20.00 to the legal medicine institute in Alicante, where an autopsy was carried out on Monday.
State news agency EFE reported that the family are of Algerian origin but residents in France.
This was the second child to drown in a swimming pool in Alicante province in less than a week, after a boy aged four died in a similar incident in the private swimming pool of a house in Ciudad Quesada, Rojales, on Wednesday, August 5.
A girl of the same age also drowned in the communal pool of an urbanisation in Calpe on July 29.
A total of 25 people have died from drowning in Alicante province so far this year, according to research for the website ahogamiento.com, a project of the Spanish lifeguards association (AETSAS) which compiles data to raise awareness and improve prevention of such incidents, especially those involving children.
This is more than any other province in the country.
There have been a total of 263 deaths by drowning nationwide in various circumstances, including 23 in swimming pools.
Of the total death toll, 28 were children.
Their report based on research from 2013-2017 found that lack of adult supervision was ‘almost always’ a factor and the principal cause was falling into the water.
They recommend that children who are in or near the water should be watched by an adult at all times and kept within reach as it can take only 27 seconds for them to start to drown and 3-5 minutes to be left with serious after-effects or be killed.