British child who died in Sharm el-Sheikh pool named

  • Published
Locator map of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt

A British child who died in a pool at a hotel in Egypt has been named as five-year-old Chloe Johnson from Forest Hill, south London.

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

Hotel manager Ashraf Khalil said: "We are sorry this has happened."

BBC News correspondent James Pearce said the waterpark only opened at the start of May.

Chloe's grandmother, April Johnson, told Sky News her granddaughter was "a lovely, lovely girl" who was "intelligent for her age".

'Hearts and souls'

Sharm el-Sheikh is one of the most popular Red Sea holiday destinations.

A spokeswoman for First Choice said: "First Choice can sadly confirm that a child has died while staying at the Coral Sea Waterworld hotel in Egypt. The incident occurred in a pool in the hotel's waterpark."

She continued: "In partnership with the hotelier, our resort team are working to understand how the incident occurred, and we will be carrying out a full and thorough investigation.

"At this time our priority is to provide support to the family."

Mr 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 added: "When the investigation concludes we will be able to give answers."

'Strict criteria'

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are aware of the death of a British national in Sharm el-Sheikh on 17 May. We are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult time."

According to its website, the Coral Sea Waterworld resort is located on a beach in Nabq Bay, and has 369 rooms.

About one million tourists from the UK visited Egypt last year, according to travel association ABTA.

But the number of British visitors has dropped by about half a million since the start of the political unrest which came with the Arab Spring in 2011.

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.