British Girl Drowns In Pool At Egyptian Resort

The grandmother of a British girl who drowned in a swimming pool in Egypt has questioned why lifeguards were not on hand to save her life.

April Johnson, speaking to Sky News, said she had been told it was left to other tourists to drag Chloe, five, from the water and try to resuscitate her.

She also claimed her son had to take his daughter's body to his hotel room and that it was four hours before an ambulance arrived.

Ms Johnson said she felt "angry, angry, angry and so hurt".

"We have all got knives in our hearts to think that if she had been seen, would she still be with us?," she said.

"Where were the lifeguards? Even if they didn't see her when she was pulled out of the pool, why did they not come forward and start resuscitation? Why was it left to other people?

"I can't get my head around that one. I need to know why to put Chloe at rest and try to help my son as best I can."

Chloe, from Forest Hill in south east London, was on her first ever family holiday when she died.

She drowned on Friday as she played in one of the pools of an extensive waterpark at the Coral Sea Waterworld hotel in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Ms Johnson told Sky News she had been told her son was looking for the young girl when she was spotted by holidaymakers.

"A gentleman came running along with her in his arms and put her down on the floor," she said as she broke down in tears.

"My son tried to resuscitate her. A couple of holidaymakers, a doctor and a nurse, tried to resuscitate her and couldn't."

She added: "Chloe was taken up to their hotel room and left in the hotel room for four hours until the ambulance came.

"My questions are - why weren't the ambulance there straightaway and where were the lifeguards?

"If the lifeguards had been around the pool and pulled her out and resuscitated her, we would still have her today. I want answers.

"I want to know where the lifeguards were for the sake of any other children. I would hate it to happen to any other family."

Ms Johnson said her son was "in a very, very bad way", describing Chloe as "his life".

"Knowing she was at the bottom of that pool when he was walking around looking for her and didn't know she was there, that will be with him to his dying day", she said.

Asked to describe Chloe, she added: "She was a lovely lovely girl. She was intelligent for her age, she was starting to read. She was very polite - a happy child. She wasn't naughty."

The hotel described the girl's death as a "tragic accident" in a message on its Facebook page.

The family was travelling with First Choice, which issued a statement promising a "full and thorough investigation".

The tour operator said: "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.

Ashraf Khalil, the general manager of the Coral Sea Waterworld, said: "The hotel is waiting to finalise its investigation into what happened together with the official investigation of the Egyptian district attorney and Egyptian police.

"We are also, in collaboration with First Choice, flying in investigators from the UK today.

"We want to see the facts and the most important fact here is that our hearts and souls are with the family and with little Chloe.

"We have moved them from the scene of the hotel so they can at least not be in premises where the accident happened.

"We are taking care of them so they are not bothered in this time of grief and we wish to express our deepest condolences to them."

About one million tourists from the UK visited Egypt last year, according to travel association ABTA.

But the number of British tourists has gone down by around 500,000 since the start of the political unrest which came with the so-called 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.