An eight-year-old girl has drowned in the swimming pool of a children summer camp in Halkidiki peninsula, northern Greece, on Tuesday. One arrest within a few hours after the tragedy.
Nobody of the camp personnel had taken notice of the girl’s drowning until they started to count the children after lunch and before they returned to the huts for afternoon rest, media reported.
According to state broadcaster ERT, the team leader realized that the girl was missing during the midday count. Camp officials started looking for her throughout the camp and finally she was found unconscious in the swimming pool, which was closed at that time.
They reportedly found the girl’s body in the swimming pool and after it was retrieved from the water in an unconscious state, the girl was rushed by ambulance to a local health center. There she was intubated and then transported to a hospital in Thessaloniki, where she was pronounced dead.
Doctors’ efforts to bring the girl back to life were fruitless.
Speaking to Star TV, her grandfather complained that the camp officials were not clear about what had happened. “We asked them if there is lifeguard in the camp and they said that there was one,” the devastated and angry grandfather said.
Local police immediately started investigating the circumstances around the girl’s death and take testimonies from camp personnel, including the team leader, the lifeguard and the camp manager.
According to latest information on Tuesday evening, the 19-year-old team leader was arrested by the police is expected to appear before the prosecutor tomorrow, Wednesday.
The young woman was arrested on the basis of article 306 of the Criminal Code, which refers to the offense of exposure, that is, when someone leaves a person under his protection without help, local media thesstoday.gr reported.
Police continues the investigation.
The tragedy took place in the coastal town of Kriopigim by Kassandra.
Somebody aged 19 is much too young to have that kind of responsibility.
her mom or dad should be looking after their child
But it was at a summer camp. Parents drop their kids off at a summer camp for a week or so; parents are not allowed to stay at the camps in the same way that parents do not stay at their child’s school.
I think it’s a tragedy and hope that it leads to reform of how summer camps are managed, but I am not sure that it will.