Boy aged 4 drowns in Tenerife pool tragedy
A BRITISH boy of four has drowned in a hotel swimming pool while on holiday in Tenerife.
Presley Stockton was pulled from the water at the four-star Paradise Park Hotel, in Los Cristianos, where he had been staying with relatives.
An air ambulance was mobilised and paramedics desperately tried to resuscitate the blond-haired toddler. But he went into cardiac arrest and could not be saved.
Presley, from Hindley, near Wigan, was pronounced dead at the scene on Wednesday afternoon.
A hotel spokesman said the little boy could not swim and was not wearing armbands. A lifeguard pulled him out of the hotel’s family pool, which was busy with children, he added.
Presley is thought to have flown from Manchester Airport to the Canary island with his mother, Kirsty Stockton, 24, and other members of his family, the day before the tragedy.
The accident is being investigated by police on the island together with a local court.
Yesterday devastated family members and friends posted tributes to Presley on social media.
His grandfather, Mike Jolley, 48, wrote on Facebook: ‘Today our little P, our little whirlwind Presley has been taken from us. Our family is broken-hearted. Fly high my little angel, you were one in a million.’
One relative, who stayed behind in the UK, said: ‘My heart hurts so much. Sad day today. RIP Presley Stockton. Absolutely devastated. Sending lots of love to all my family. Stay strong. Miss you all so much. Thinking of you all tonight.’ Friend Jade Disley said: ‘What a cruel world we live in. Four is no age to die. Can’t imagine to think what Kirsty and her family are going through. Such heart-breaking news.’ Emergency services were called to the 376-room hotel, which has five swimming pools and four hot tubs, at 3.40pm on Wednesday. A hotel spokesman said: ‘The [family] pool was packed with children and families. It is not a deep pool. There were two lifeguards on the spot. ‘One pulled him out, the other one came over and they were both doing procedures. Two to three minutes later an ambulance came, there were lots of ambulances, five or six doctors were trying to resuscitate. Everybody was saying, “My goodness how can this happen?” One gentleman said, “I was half a yard away from him.” He could not swim and had no armbands on. It is an absolute tragedy.’
A spokesman for the island’s emergency response coordination centre said: ‘An alert was received informing us that a child, who was suffering possible cardiac arrest, had been pulled out of a swimming pool at a hotel in the resort.
‘Efforts to revive the youngster using CPR proved unsuccessful and he was confirmed dead at the scene.’
On Monday, a 70-year-old Briton, who was named locally as Silvia Phillips, drowned in a swimming pool in the resort of Puerto Rico on Gran Canaria.
And a 28-year-old British woman who has not been named died in hospital on Ibiza on September 7, two days after being pulled out of a swimming pool at the Hotel Nautico Ebeso, where she had been on holiday with her partner.