The British brother and sister who drowned on Tuesday afternoon at Llarga beach in Salou (Tarragona), a 13-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl, were caught by strong waves when the yellow flag was flying and there was no lifeguard service because their shift had already ended. The chief inspector of the Salou Police, José Luis Gargallo, explained that ‘the sea was rough and it was dangerous to swim. When it’s like this, you have to be very careful.’
The police chief assured that the beach where the incident took place is ‘very quiet’: ‘99% of the year it has optimal conditions for swimming, but yesterday was not one of those days.’ The father of the two children, who had also gone into the sea, was rescued alive. ‘He had swallowed a lot of water and was exhausted, very tired,’ said the inspector, just before representatives of the council and local police officers observed a minute’s silence in front of the Town Hall.
The emergency services received the call at 8.48 p.m. – the lifeguard service ended at 8 p.m. – and, according to Gargallo, the two children and their father entered the water in a rocky area and the current swept one of the children 100 metres away.
One of the police officers who took part in the rescue recalled that when he arrived, a hotel worker was trying to pull the father out and they managed to get him to shore; they then located the girl and tried to resuscitate her without success.
The two children were on holiday in Salou with their parents and other siblings. According to Gargallo, the mother was with her other three children at the hotel at the time of the incident. The chief inspector of the local police emphasised that this was an accident, but that they would look into any improvements that could be made to reinforce safety. Tuesday was a particularly tragic day on the Tarragona coast, as a 54-year-old German tourist also drowned on a beach in Cambrils.