Man and his two children who drowned in hotel pool's deep end did not know how to swim, confirm authorities
New details have emerged about the tragic drowning death of three British tourists who were found dead in a pool at a resort near the coastal Spanish town of Fuengirola.
Gabriel Diya, his 16-year-old son Praise-Emmanuel, and six-year-old daughter Comfort Diya all drowned at the deep end of an unheated pool at holiday resort Club La Costa World at around 2 pm on Christmas Eve, according to the Daily Mail.
The initial suspicion was that the family, who lived in Charlton, south east London, had died because of a problem with the pool suction side of the circulation system, but it has now been revealed that it was mostly because none of the three victims knew how to swim.
Comfort Diya was reportedly the one who started drowning first after slipping while in the pool, failing to regain her footing, and drifting towards the deep end.
Praise-Emmanuel had jumped in after hearing her distressed cries, following which Gabriel had tried to intervene as well but neither of the two knew how to swim either.
Francisco Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Civil Guard Union AUGC, which is investigating the deaths, confirmed that this angle was now being considered as the most plausible explanation.
"The surviving sister has said they didn't know how to swim," he revealed. "With that information and the fact we know the water in the pool was very cold, the mystery of what caused this awful tragedy begins to unravel itself."
Gabriel's other daughter, 14-year-old Favour, had been playing with Comfort moments before her struggle started and is said to have witnessed the horrific incident unfold.
She told authorities that her brother had seen Comfort in difficulty and tried to rescue her, at which point she had gone to look for a lifebuoy. Around the same time, her father begun to strip and had jumped in as well, she said.
The children's mother, 49-year-old Olubunmi, was in the family's holiday apartment at the time of the tragedy and is believed to have confirmed Favour's story.
Autopsies performed at Malaga's Institute of Forensic Medicine ruled the cause of death as drowning, and pathologists found no signs of any external injuries or signs that they may have been poisoned.
However, local police and a Fuengirola court coordinating the judicial investigation into the deaths have not yet ruled out any anomalies with the pool, and the Civil Guard has similarly insisted that the probe is still "ongoing".