Girl, 12, drowns on school trip to France
A BRITISH girl has died on a school trip to France after the lake pontoon she and her friends were playing on overturned and trapped her underwater.
Lifeguards at the watersports centre in the Massif Central pulled the pupils to safety, but 12year-old Jessica Lawson from Hull was reportedly only found at the second attempt after a delay of up to 20 minutes.
Efforts to revive Jessica at the scene on Tuesday were unsuccessful and, despite being airlifted to hospital, doctors were unable to save her and she was pronounced dead yesterday.
Jessica lived with her father, Antony, the director of a removals and storage firm, and mother Brenda near her school in Kirk Ella.
Last night her 18-year-old sister Polly wrote on Facebook: ‘The girl in this accident was unfortu- nately my sister Jess. We are in France doing everything we can to get her back into the country. All of your thoughts are appreciated at this time.’
Jessica was among 24 pupils and three staff from Wolfreton School who were on the £460 water sports trip to Club Correze in Meymac, southern France, enjoying six days of activities including sailing, kayaking, paddle boarding and mountain biking. On Tuesday afternoon, following the end of the planned activities, the children were jumping into the water from a pontoon in Lake Triouzoune when it overturned, trapping some of them underneath.
‘All of the children were thought to have been rescued from the water, but a guard had to get into the water for a second time to save the child,’ said a local police source.
A criminal investigation into the tragedy was launched by the French authorities as they try to establish whether the park was negligent in its supervision of the children, with police divers still inspecting the pontoon yesterday.
The group is due to return home today but remained at the camp yesterday as investigators spoke to them about what happened.
Headmaster David McCready said the school’s ‘heartfelt thoughts and prayers’ were with Jessica’s family, adding: ‘The news of this terrible tragedy has come as a dreadful shock to our whole school community.’
The trip was organised by Shrewsbury-based specialist schools tour operator Activ4.