I’ve cried so much I’ve no tears left in my eyes

Father of tragic theme park girl reveals torment

THE father of the 11-year-old girl who died after falling off a theme park water ride has spoken for the first time of the anguish he has endured since the tragedy.

In a moving interview with The Mail on Sunday, Muhammed Suable Islam, 47, said: ‘I loved my daughter too much, and she loved me too much. I have no tears left in my eyes because I have cried so much.’

Evha Jannath died after she was jolted out of a six-seater rubberringed boat on the Splash Canyon ride at Drayton Manor, Staffordshire, during a school trip. She had apparently stood up to swap seats.

Evha’s classmates have claimed that security staff refused to

‘A happy, laughing girl with great promise’

believe them when they raised the alarm, apparently saying it was ‘impossible’ for anyone to fall into the rapids.

Mr Islam, who is estranged from Evha’s mother, believes staff should have acted more quickly. He has also questioned why there was no teacher on the boat with the schoolchildren.

In a poignant development it emerged yesterday that during the trip Evha bought a present – a bag of sweets – for her mother, Musammath Nurun Nahar, after being given £10 pocket money. The gift was found in her school bag.

And relatives spoke of how Evha was nearly stopped from going on the trip as she was not wearing school uniform, mistakenly thinking she could dress casually. Her father described his daughter as a ‘happy, laughing’ girl who showed great promise at school.

‘She used to call me and I used to call her,’ he said. ‘I used to ask her if she had eaten, if she had gone to school, and if everyone around her loved her.’

Mr Islam, who is of Bangladeshi origin, lives in St Albans, Hertfordshire. His wife moved out three years ago with Evha and her 19-year-old brother, living first in Rugby and later Leicester.

One of Mr Islam’s close relatives, who did not want to be named, said Evha’s father blamed himself for her death.

‘He says that, if his daughter did not leave this town [St Albans], she would not have gone to this trip, and this would not have hap- pened,’ said the relative. Evha was a pupil at a private Islamic school, Jameah Girls Academy (JGA) in Leicester.

Last Tuesday, she joined more than 100 pupils on the trip. After the accident, she was airlifted to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, but was pronounced dead.

Mr Islam has told relatives that he thinks Drayton Manor staff did not act quickly enough.

The relative said: ‘He believes if the park took action straight away, then this tragedy would not have happened.

‘He does not want to blame the school, but he believes there definitely should have been a teacher with the girls.’

Other friends of Evha’s family also spoke of their grief.

Khosru Miah, 40, from Leicester, said: ‘What I find really sad is that she never came back home, but police came round to return her school bag, and the bag full of sweets she bought for her mother.’

A post-mortem examination is expected tomorrow. Yesterday the park reopened but the water ride remained closed.

Yesterday the school said it was liaising with authorities. Drayton Manor declined to comment because of the ‘ongoing investigation’.