A Briton and his two children who drowned before the mother’s eyes in a swimming pool in southern Spain did not know how to swim, according to testimony gathered by the Civil Guard, we learned this Thursday from a source close to the investigation.
The drama took place on Christmas Eve, Tuesday, in a tourist residence in the coastal town of Mijas, near Malaga, where this British family of two adults and three children was spending their holidays.
While a forensic doctor was performing an autopsy to determine the cause of death, investigators were told by a surviving sister that they “did not really know how to swim”. The victims were identified by the police as a nine-year-old girl, a 52-year-old father and a 16-year-old son, who was of American nationality. The age of the surviving sister has not been released.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard said that when the little girl struggled to get out of the water, “her father and brother threw themselves into the pool to rescue her, but all three drowned.” The children’s mother attended the scene, which could be reconstructed thanks to her testimony and that of an employee of the residence who removed the bodies from the water, he added.
“What we are looking for is why they couldn’t get out of the water,” said the spokesman.
Investigators “do not rule out any hypothesis”
The alert had been given when the adult and the two children were still in the swimming pool but the rescuers dispatched on the spot could not revive them. The investigators “do not rule out any hypothesis”, according to the spokesman. They notably examined the purification system to try to establish if the little girl could have been vacuumed.
However, the small pool was reopened on Thursday, according to images from national television.
On Facebook, the La Costa World residence claims that the Civil Guard “gave its formal authorization to reopen the swimming pool, having found no complaints about the swimming pool or the procedures in place”.
“It was a tragic accident that left everyone who witnessed it in shock. Our first concern, of course, is the support of the remaining family members,” said the club’s message, asking to respect their privacy.
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