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Date Published: 27/05/2022

ARCHIVED - British toddler drowns in private pool near Benidorm on the Costa Blanca

The local community in the Marina Baixa area of Alicante province announced three days of mourning following the death of the 19-month-old boy

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - British toddler drowns in private pool near Benidorm on the Costa Blanca

A 19-month-old British toddler has drowned after falling into a swimming pool at a villa in the village of Aigues near Benidorm.

Freddie Joseph Briggs was pulled out of the water unconscious at a villa on a private residential estate called El Paraiso at around 6.15pm on Wednesday May 25.

An air ambulance was sent to the residential area as part of an urgent emergency response, but paramedics' efforts to revive the little boy failed and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

It's not clear if the family were on holiday or live in Spain, although there are reports the family moved to the area recently. The child's mother is believed to be in her early fifties and her partner in his late forties.

In a statement, Aigues Town Hall said on Thursday: "The news of the death yesterday of the little boy Freddie Joseph Briggs has saddened and moved locals living in Aigues.

"As a show of our pain and solidarity with the child’s parents and other relatives, we are declaring three days of mourning starting tomorrow."

Meanwhile, sources at the regional government emergency response coordination centre confirmed a neighbour performed resuscitation techniques until the medical response teams arrived.

"Once they were there, the medical responders continued with advanced CPR and other resuscitation techniques but they were unable to save the child, a 19-month-old toddler who was pronounced dead at the scene."

And in a statement, police sources said the little boy's parents "were helped to get the toddler out of the water and resuscitation techniques were practiced on the youngster until an air ambulance arrived".

Tragedy has struck two other British families in the area in recent weeks.

Two weeks ago, former Royal Navy sailor Pail Lebihan, 25 and originally from Gateshead, drowned whilst trying to rescue his dog from a river in Callosa d'En Sarriàt, 15km from Benidorm, the same river that had claimed the lives of three other people in the past month.

Paul's devastated family launched a GoFundMe appeal to help parents Deborah and Paul Snr fly his body home to give him a memorial, raising more than 16,000 euros so far.

Just days earlier, British expat Ingrid Dale, 67, originally from Dereham in Norfolk, died after being stung by a wasp in a Costa Blanca restaurant on May 9. The pensioner died in an ambulance outside the Hill Top Sports Bar & Grill after going into cardiac arrest before she could be taken to hospital.

Image: Archive

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