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Full investigation promised after girl drowns at Egyptian hotel

Two lifeguards have been arrested over the death of five-year-old Chloe Johnson who died in a swimming pool at a hotel in Egypt.

First Choice said a full investigation would be held into her death at the waterpark at the Coral Sea Waterworld Hotel in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Chloe, from Forest Hill, south London, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her father Tony Johnson had left the pool to buy ice creams but returned to find a stranger holding his daughter’s lifeless body having pulled her from the water.

The two arrests are being made in connection with the lifeguards not being present at their posts.


In a report in The Independent, Johnson, 43, says he had to wait four hours for emergency services to come and confirm her death.

He said: “There were no emergency services. I took her off the man who was coming out of the swimming pool – there were no staff around.

“There was a woman on holiday who said she was a nurse and a man who said he was a doctor.

“I have done mouth to mouth before so I just tried to revive her. I tried, but there was a lot of water coming up, and I knew very quickly that she had already lost her life.”

He said there had been two on duty lifeguards around the pool but they had been absent when Chloe drowned.

Hotel manager Ahraf Khalil said the hotel and First Choice had organised for investigators from the UK to fly to the country to try to uncover what happened.

He added: “The hotel is waiting to finalise its investigation into what happened together with the official investigation of the Egyptian district attorney and Egyptian police.

“We want to see the facts and the most important fact here is that our hearts and souls are with the family and with little Chloe.

“We have moved them from the scene of the hotel so they can at least not be in premises where the accident happened.”

He told the BBC: “When the investigation concludes we will be able to give answers.”

An Abta spokeswoman said there had been no particular concerns regarding water parks in the region in recent times.

“There is a lot of focus on health and safety in water parks because they are often visited by families with children and major tour operators will have very strict criteria in place,” she said.

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