Alex Trelinski
TWO British children from Birmingham who drowned at Salou’s Llarga beach on Tuesday evening died because of the strong current and ‘dangerous’ conditions.
Sister and brother, Ameiya and Ricardo Junior Parris, 13 and 11 – known to friends and family as Maya and Jubs – were unable to be saved by their father, Ricardo Senior.
He in turn had to be rescued by emergency services.
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The siblings had gone into water when a yellow flag had been hoisted and the lifeguard service had ended for the day.
Salou Police chief inspector, Jose Luis Gargallo, said. “The sea was rough and it was dangerous to bathe. When it is like this, you have to be very cautious.”
Gargallo added that Llarga beach presents good swimming conditions for ‘99% of the year’ but said it was not like that on Tuesday.
As to the children’s father, the chief inspector said: “He had swallowed a lot of water and was exhausted and very fatigued.”
The 112 emergency number was called at 8.48pm, after lifeguards had wrapped up for the day some 48 minutes earlier.
According to Gargallo, the children and their father got into the sea via a rocky area and the current dragged one of the youngsters some 100 metres.
One of the police officers who took part in the rescue said that when he arrived there was a hotel worker trying to get Ricardo Senior out and managed to get him to the shore.
They then found Maya and tried to revive her without success.
Gargallo said their mother was with her three other children at their hotel at the time of the tragedy.
He stressed that he will look at any safety improvements that can be made at local beaches.
A GoFundMe page by relatives to cover the cost of bringing the childrens bodies back to the UK had raised more than €35,000 on Friday.
The fundraising page, set up by cousin Holly Marquis-Johnson, said nothing could have prepared their ‘heartbroken’ parents for losing two children.
“Their absence has left an unbearable silence, not just for their parents but for their whole family, who were incredibly close and shared an unbreakable bond”, she said.
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