Rescuers have described the harrowing moment they found a British brother and sister, 11 and 13, dead, and their exhausted father alive in the stormy seas off a Spanish beach.
The children tragically lost their lives after getting into trouble while swimming in the water off Llarga beach in Salou, Tarragona, on Tuesday night.
Previous reports claimed it was two brothers who had lost their lives, but officials confirmed this afternoon the dead children were a girl and a boy.
Inspector Jose Luis Gargallo, head of Salou’s local police force, said the initial 112 call received pointed to three people drowning.
He said: ‘Local police rushed to the scene and saw that there were indeed three people who were really struggling to get out of the water.
‘It was a father with his son and his daughter, all British.
‘When the youngsters, the boy and girl aged 11 and 13, were brought out of the water they had no vital signs and all the resuscitation efforts to save them proved unsuccessful.
‘The father could be saved. He had swallowed a lot of water and he was exhausted but could be saved thanks to the intervention of the emergency medical responders and police.
A British brother and sister, 11 and 13, tragically lost their lives after getting into trouble while swimming in the water off Llarga beach in Salou, Tarragona, on Tuesday night
Previous reports claimed it was two brothers who had lost their lives, but officials confirmed this afternoon the dead children were a girl and a boy
Inspector Jose Luis Gargallo, head of Salou’s local police force, said the initial 112 call received pointed to three people drowning
‘We’re talking about a family with five children and the mum was in the nearby hotel where they were staying with the other three children.
‘The father was with the two children that died.
‘All day a yellow flag had been out at that beach so there was a danger of a stormy sea which is why the yellow flag was out.
‘When the tragedy happened the sea was the same as two or three hours before so it was a stormy sea.
‘That’s why you have to be careful with the sea. The beach where this happened 99 per cent of the time offers perfect bathing conditions, it’s a very calm sea normally.
‘Yesterday it wasn’t like that at this beach or at other beaches in the area. Just a few hours earlier another person had died in very similar conditions.’
He added: ‘The lifeguards are on duty at the beach where these British youngsters died until 8pm. They start work at 9.30am.
‘Unfortunately this alert came in at 8.48pm so 48 minutes after the lifeguard service had finished.
Footage published locally yesterday showed a helicopter flying above the beach where a white tent had been erected on the sand to shield the bodies of the two children
Emergency services were still at the scene after nightfall before court workers authorised the removal of their bodies so they could be taken to a nearby morgue for post-mortems to take place. Authorities shared an aerial view of the beach in Tarragona
The authorities said the deaths marked the 15th and 16th fatalities on Catalan beaches since the summer campaign officially began on June 15 (stock image)
‘This has been an accident but as always with these sorts of accidents, a thorough investigation will take place to see if there are things that can be improved and if they can there will be improvements.’
He also said local police officers jumped into the sea to try to save the children.
One of the officers, identified only by his first name and the initial of his surname as Younes A, said: ‘A hotel worker was trying to get one of the three out of the sea when we arrived.
‘We were told when we helped get that person out that another two people were in the sea who could be minors.
‘We tried to locate them, saw bits of clothes and seconds later were able to locate and get a young girl out of the water and began resuscitation and another police force was the one responsible for getting the other child out of the sea.
‘When the emergency services arrived they took over the efforts to save them until they said they couldn’t do anything more.
‘We don’t know the circumstances leading up to them getting into difficulties.
‘I leapt into the water with two other colleagues to get the father to safety first before going back to rescue one of the children.’
He added: ‘There were waves and wind. It was dangerous. There was a lot of swell.’
Footage published locally yesterday showed a helicopter flying above the beach where a white tent had been erected on the sand to shield the bodies of the two children.
Emergency services were still at the scene after nightfall before court workers authorised the removal of their bodies so they could be taken to a nearby morgue for post-mortems to take place.
The authorities said the deaths marked the 15th and 16th fatalities on Catalan beaches since the summer campaign officially began on June 15.
The figure ‘already exceeds by five those registered in the same period last summer’.
Last summer, 11 deaths were reported on Catalan beaches.
