A young couple were drowned in flash floods while on a hiking holiday in Mallorca, an inquest has heard. Climbing instructor and lifeguard Alexander Barrett, 32, tried to help his partner Sarah Thompson, 26, as a “wall of water” cascaded down the canyon they were descending with a group of other hikers, Stockport Coroner’s Court heard on Tuesday.
Both were swept to their deaths on Tuesday September 3, with Thompson’s body recovered by Spanish search and rescue teams on September 4, the day after the flood. Barrett’s body was found on September 6 in the Torrent de Pareis canyon in the Tramuntana mountains. At the time, the Guardia Civil estimated that the 32-year-old Briton, was carried almost three kilometres by the sheer force of the torrent of water.
His body was eventually found at the mouth of the Torrent de Pareis in Sa Calobra. The body was in a large pool that had been some two metres deep. The water had subsided considerably and a Guardia Civil helicopter detected what looked like a body. Guardia divers and the mountain rescue team went to the area, where they recovered the body.
According to the account of other hikers who coincided with the two Britons and were rescued by the Guardia Civil, the young woman who died was swept away by the flow of the torrent and the man was swept away by the water when he tried to help her. The flash floods caused chaos. Due to the overflowing of the Torrent de Es Racó in Escorca, emergency teams had to rescue a hundred people who had been trapped.
In addition, the underpass that connects to sa Calobra was flooded. Land resources and a Guardia Civil helicopter also took part in the operation. Of the five people who were staying at the Son Amer refuge, two of them returned at 00:20 hours, in a state of shock and very tired, after being rescued. A third tourist had to be treated in a clinic. Post-mortem examinations gave the cause of death as drowning for both the deceased. Jyoti Gill, assistant coroner for Manchester South, recorded a verdict of accidental death caused by drowning for both Thompson and Barrett.