Evening Standard/London
A five-year-old British girl has died in a hotel pool in Egypt. She has been named as Chloe Johnson, from Forest Hill in south London. Her family had been in the resort for only 24 hours when the tragedy took place.
Chloe’s grandmother told Sky News that the family were “devastated by her death”. She also said there were no lifeguards on duty at the time of incident.
Chloe died of suspected drowning in a waterpark at the Coral Sea Waterworld Hotel in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, travel company First Choice said.
First Choice said it would carry out a “full and thorough investigation” in partnership with the hotelier.
A spokeswoman said: “First Choice can sadly confirm that a child has died while staying at the Coral Sea Waterworld hotel in Egypt. The incident occurred in a pool in the hotel’s waterpark.
“Our thoughts and condolences are with the family at this extremely difficult time. The British Consulate were immediately informed and they are now working with our dedicated resort team in Egypt, to offer every assistance possible to the family in resort.
“In partnership with the hotelier, our resort team are working to understand how the incident occurred, and we will be carrying out a full and thorough investigation. At this time our priority is to provide support to the family.”
Sharm el-Sheikh is a popular holiday destination overlooking the Red Sea.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are aware of the death of a British national in Sharm el-Sheikh on 17 May. We are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult time.”
About 1mn tourists from the UK visited Egypt last year, according to Association of British Travel Agents.
But the number of British tourists has gone down by around half amn since the start of the political unrest which came with the Arab Spring in 2011.
An ABTA spokeswoman said there had been no particular concerns regarding water parks in the region in recent times.
“There is a lot of focus on health and safety in water parks because they are often visited by families with children and major tour operators will have very strict criteria in place,” she said.
Sharm el-Sheikh
