Father and two children drown in pool on holiday
THREE members of a family died in a pool on the Costa del sol after a father jumped in to try to save his nine-year-old daughter, helped by his teenage son.
They were found unresponsive in the water at a holiday resort near Fuengirola on Christmas eve.
The mother of the two children was seen praying for them to come back to life as another tourist desperately performed CPR on them.
The tragedy started when the nineyear-old got into difficulty in the water and the father jumped in to rescue her. The girl’s older brother is then said to have followed when he saw the two of them struggling.
Police are reported to be investigating the pool’s pumps and drains to establish if they may have trapped the trio underwater, but insisted yesterday that they were keeping an open mind.
holidaymaker Josias Fletchman, who tried to save the lives of the three, said the mother ‘stayed calm’ as she touched her loved ones and prayed their hearts would start beating again. The father of three from Manchester was returning to his apartment block at the Club La Costa World complex as staff were pulling the girl, her 16year-old brother and their 52-yearold father from the pool.
As he tried to save them, he said the mother ‘was praying for them to come back to life’.
he added: ‘she was calm. she was touching their bodies. she continued praying even after the ambulance people arrived and had stopped trying to revive them. she exercised her faith to the limit. I was performing CPR on her husband but I’m a believer and I prayed as well. she strengthened me in the way she reacted. It just wasn’t meant to be.’
Another guest at the complex, eni Raja, 22, from Birmingham, said: ‘I saw the bodies with three white blankets over them. They were by the pool and the man’s bare foot was sticking out from the blanket he was under.
‘The mum was crying. I can’t get the image out of my mind. No one’s told us not to swim in the pool and I’m shocked by that. I think it should be closed.
‘All the other holidaymakers have been speaking about it but no one knows what’s happening because the resort workers are not saying anything.’
Police said yesterday they were keeping an open mind on the reasons for the triple tragedy, in the early afternoon on Tuesday. Divers were later pictured at the scene.
Investigators are understood to have analysed the pool’s pump and network of skimmers and drains to check for any strong areas of suction. spanish media say a resort worker also had problems getting out of the pool after going to the family’s rescue.
Local reports also say they have searched for items of clothing that might have got stuck in the drain and taken water samples to test ahead of the post mortem examinations, due to take place yesterday in Malaga. The results will be sent to an investigating judge but are rarely made public in spain.
The sprawling resort of apartments was hit by a tragedy in February when British girl habiba Chishti, nine, died after a severe allergic reaction to an ice cream she had eaten at a nearby shopping centre.
The names of the three victims have not been released, although well-placed sources said the father and girl were British like their mother, while the 16-year-old was travelling on a Us passport.
Counsellors are with the mother and her other child, thought to be a teenage girl, while other relatives fly out to spain.
A spokesman for Club La Costa World was unable to offer an explanation for the tragedy, although bosses insisted police investigators had found ‘no concerns’ with the pool.
CLC World Resorts and hotels said in a statement: ‘The Guardia Civil have carried out a full investigation which found no concerns relating to the pool in question or procedures in place, which leaves us to believe this was a tragic accident which has left everyone surrounding the incident in shock.’
‘Praying for them to come back to life’