Police divers have discovered the swimming cap of the British girl who died with her father and brother in their Costa del Sol holiday pool, it emerged today.
The cap was found in the pool pump system by investigators trying to discover why a nine-year-old girl, her 16-year-old brother and their 52-year-old father drowned at the resort, Spanish media said.
It is feared the family could have fallen victim to a suction problem which turned the pool into a death trap by making it impossible for the nine-year-old’s girls relatives to reach the surface after she got into difficulties.
But the exact circumstances of their deaths remained a mystery this morning as resort chiefs said they had been given permission to reopen the pool at the Club La Costa World complex near Fuengirola and insisted a police investigation had found ‘no concerns’ with it.
Police divers are pictured at the poolside of the Club La Costa World resort in Spain after three members of the same British family died there
Autopsies performed at Malaga’s Institute of Forensic Medicine have confirmed the girl, nine, her 16-year-old brother and their 52-year-old father all drowned.
Pathologists found no signs of any external injuries, or evidence they had been poisoned, during the examinations.
Medical experts have also found nothing pointing to the nine-year-old’s sister suffering any chlorine poisoning.
The 12-year-old was examined after police were told she had been swimming with her younger sister shortly before the Christmas Eve drama unfolded.
Police said yesterday ahead of the autopsies that they were keeping an open mind and ‘all options’ were being examined.
The girls’ parents are understood to have found the nine-year-old in difficulties under the water after rushing to the pool when the older girl returned to their holiday apartment alone and they quizzed her on her sister’s whereabouts.
The dad and his 16-year-old son jumped in the water in a failed bid to save her which ended with them also drowning.
Yesterday a witness told how the mother, believed to be from London, ‘stayed calm’ and prayed as he performed CPR with resort staff on the three tourists.
Father-of-three Josias Fletchman, from Manchester, said in a moving account of how he tried to save them: ‘The mum was praying for them to come back to life.
‘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.’
Pictured: The entrance to the Club La Costa World resort on Spain’s Costa del Sol where three Britons died
The tragedy occurred after a nine-year-old girl got into difficulties in the resort’s swimming pool (pictured) and her older brother and their father jumped into the water to save her
Reports say a resort worker who dived into the water to recover the three bodies has said he had also experienced difficulties reaching the surface and exiting the pool.
But late last night resort chiefs said the Civil Guard, the police force leading the investigation into the triple tragedy, had given them permission to reopen the pool.
The pool is one of several on the sprawling holiday complex but was being little used because it was not heated like some others.
Resort operator CLC World Resorts and Hotels put out a statement which said: ‘All at Club La Costa World resort are devastated by the tragedy that unfolded on Christmas Eve where a father and his two children were found unresponsive in a swimming pool and despite the best efforts of our first response team and the emergency services, could not be revived.
‘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.
‘Naturally our primary concern remains the care and support of the remaining family members.
‘We would therefore request that their privacy be respected at this traumatic time.’
They also confirmed the Civil Guard had authorised the reopening of the pool, indicating that police feel there is no risk to bathers of a repeat of the Christmas Eve horror.
A police van at the scene after a nine-year-old girl got into difficulties at the swimming pool of the Club La Costa World resort near Fuengirola this afternoon
Civil Guard investigators have yet to make any official comment on the swimming cap find.
According to newspaper Diario Sur, the discovery was made by specialist police divers.
A pool expert quoted by the newspaper described as ‘very remote’ but not impossible a situation in which drains on the pool floor could become dangerous and suck people underwater if skimmers and other cleaners stopped working.
In 2009 British schoolboy Nathan Clark drowned at a Thai water park after apparently being sucked into a pool’s pumping system.
Last summer a 12-year-old Russian girl died after she was reportedly trapped underwater when her arm was sucked into a pool pump at a Turkish resort.
Counsellors are now comforting the widowed mum affected by the latest pool tragedy and her survivor daughter.
Relatives have flown from the UK to be by their side.
Well-placed sources said the teenage son who drowned was travelling on an American passport but described her husband and nine-year-old girl as British passport holders.
An FCO spokesperson said after news of the tragedy emerged: ‘We are offering assistance to a British woman following an incident in Spain.’