A DEADLY start to Spain’s summer has claimed six young lives at swimming pools and beaches stretching from the Canary Islands to Mallorca in less than two weeks.
The most recent victim was a three-year-old Danish boy who drowned in a swimming pool at a holiday villa in Can Picafort, Mallorca, on Friday.
He was airlifted unconscious to Son Espases hospital in Palma, where he died the next day, health officials said.
READ MORE: British girl, 4, drowns in hotel swimming pool at popular Spanish holiday resort
His death came the same weekend a British girl, four, died in a hotel pool in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote.
She was found in cardiac arrest on Saturday afternoon and could not be revived.
Two teenage boys, aged 12 and 13, drowned the same weekend after getting into difficulty among rocks at a popular sea-swimming spot near Tarragona, Catalunya.
READ MORE: Three teenagers drown in devastating beach tragedy at Spanish tourist hotspot
One died at the scene on Friday, while the other died in hospital early on Saturday, after the pair were swept by strong currents while jumping into the sea with friends.
But the deadliest spell began days earlier in Andalucia, where two children died within four days of each other.
A 12-year-old girl was swept away by a strong current and drowned at Costacabana beach in Almeria on June 13.
Four days later, a four-year-old British boy drowned in a pool at a rural holiday villa in Periana, in Malaga’s Axarquia area.
It was the second day of his family’s holiday, as the Olive Press reported at the time.
The toll has pushed Andalucia to its worst start to June for drownings in years.
The region recorded 10 drowning deaths in June alone, according to the Real Federacion Espanola de Salvamento y Socorrismo (RFESS), Spain’s lifesaving federation.
READ MORE: Tragedy in northern Spain after three-year-old boy drowns in swimming pool
That is already higher than the seven deaths recorded by the same point last year, and the six recorded in 2024.
Nationally, the picture is just as stark.
The RFESS recorded 472 drowning deaths across Spain last year, and 47 of the victims, one in ten, were children.
Two further cases remain unresolved.
A one-year-old British girl remains critical after nearly drowning in a hotel pool in Fuerteventura on June 15.
READ MORE: British teenager fighting for life after nearly drowning during school trip to northern Spain
A 16-year-old boy has been missing since June 10, after vanishing during a guided jet-ski trip off the Costa Brava.
The Junta has launched a fresh water safety campaign as the regional toll climbs.
Government delegate Jose Manuel Correa said drowning is ‘one of the main causes of accidental and preventable deaths’ every summer.
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