3 Family Members Die in Resort Swimming Pool

Three family members died Tuesday while vacationing at a Spanish holiday resort—all in the same swimming pool, the New York Times reports. The resort, Costa del Sol, says a 9-year-old British girl, her British father, and a 16-year-old American family member were found unresponsive in the pool. Authorities say the girl was struggling in the water when her dad jumped in to help, followed by the teenager, and none could get back out. A local journalist describes the scene: "The resort workers heard the screaming and they tried to do CPR as well, but they couldn't help them," he tells the BBC. "Then the emergency doctors came and they tried for 30-35 minutes, but they couldn't revive them."

Authorities, treating the deaths as accidental, say they're investigating whether a defective drainage mechanism might have sucked them in (although the resort's owner, CLC World Resorts and Hotels, claims investigators have already rejected that possibility). According to police, a Costa del Sol worker who jumped in to help the family members said it was hard getting out of the pool. The worker described it as being "like swimming in a wild river," says a police rep. Such deaths have happened before, the Times recalls—like the 7-year-old Virginia girl who died in a New Jersey spa in 2002 and 4 people who died in a Texas water park in 2004. In the Spanish tragedy, two other family members were also visiting the resort in the town of Mijas. (More accidental death stories.)