A British toddler has drowned in a swimming pool on Spain’s Costa Blanca.
The youngster, aged just 18 months, died this morning despite desperate attempts by paramedics to save them.
It was not immediately clear whether the dead child was a boy or a girl.
Emergency responders including medical staff and police raced to the villa in La Nucia near Alicante where the tragedy occurred around 10am.
A helicopter was also sent to the scene but all efforts to resuscitate the toddler proved unsuccessful.
The Civil Guard confirmed an investigation was underway.
A spokesman for the force in Alicante said: “This incident is still under investigation but everything so far is pointing to the youngster’s death being a tragic accident.”
Well-placed sources said the family were British and the child’s mum was at the property with three of the toddler’s siblings at the time.
It was not immediately clear if they were on holiday or live at the villa.
La Nucia is a municipality just north of Benidorm and a 15-minute drive inland from the popular resort of Altea.
Around this time last year a British toddler drowned in a swimming pool accident on the Costa Blanca.
Freddie Joseph Briggs died in the pool at his parents’ home in the village of Aigues near Benidorm on May 25 last year, leading the local council to declare three days of mourning.
Tributes were paid to the 19-month-old boy at his funeral service at a church in Belfast where he was christened before he was buried at a nearby cemetery.
Father Thomas McGlynn told mourners at the service the youngster brought happiness to those around him and enjoyed his short life “to the very full.”
The child’s dad Marc Briggs, known to pals as Briggsy and thought to be from Mansfield, Notts, and Belfast-born mum Jane Mohan had moved to the Costa Blanca shortly before the tragedy.
In June last year a six-year-old British boy died three days after being rushed to hospital from a hotel pool close to the Love Island villa in Majorca.
The youngster was admitted in a “critical” state from the four-star hotel in the resort of Sa Coma after being revived at the poolside by emergency responders.
He lost his fight for life at Son Espases Hospital in the island capital Palma.
