La Roqueta beach in Guardamar del Segura has taken another life on Saturday, bringing the number of deaths to four at the same spot in just three days. On Saturday afternoon a 77-year-old man has died while bathing, according to sources from the Emergency Information and Coordination Centre (CICU), with the emergency services receiving the notification at 3:30 p.m.
The victim was pulled out of the water by other bathers who were on the beach, but he was in an unconscious state, despite attempts to revive him.
This is the same beach where 2 brave heroes, a 52-year-old Briton and a 46-year-old man from Poland, gave their lives on Friday morning, as they attempted to rescue two children, aged 6 and 7, who had found themselves in difficulty.
On Saturday afternoon paramedics carried out resuscitation manoeuvres on the bather but there has been no response.
This is the fourth death on La Roqueta beach in just three days. As we already reported, a 68-year-old man died on Thursday, and on Friday two other men, the Briton and the Pole, lost their lives while trying to rescue two children, who were finally able to get out of the water.
It is not known whether either of the two men who lost their lives had any relationship to the two children.
Friday’s incident took place around midday. There was some initial confusion with early rumours suggesting that up to eight people had lost their lives in the incident. Fortunately, this proved to be untrue.
Following the rescue three other people, two men aged 39 and 22 and a woman aged around 20, also had to receive health care, the first of them with symptoms of drowning. All of them were part of a group of bathers who jumped into the water when they saw that the children were in in serious trouble.
See also: Briton among two people drowned in Guardamar while rescuing children
When he heard of the Friday drownings the Guardamar del Segura Mayor, Jose Luis Saez, brought the monthly Plenary meeting to a halt. He said: “We have now had three deaths from drowning in the last 24 hours at Guardamar’s beaches. The prevailing sea conditions are very dangerous, with strong dragging currents making bathing unadvisable.”
The mayor confirmed that the lifeguard service and the rescue plan is not due to be put in place by the Guardamar council, until 15 June.
With four deaths in the last 48 hours, there have now been nine drownings in Alicante Province within the first seven days of June.
Nearby to Friday’s tragedies, a 76-year-old Irishman drowned on Monday at Cala Capitan in Orihuela Costa.
The other drowning victims include a Belgian pensioner and a Moldovan man. Two other bathers also passed away on Monday in Calpe and Elche.
Another swimmer in La Vila Joiosa this Saturday morning had better luck as he was able to be rescued in time and although the 69-year-old man was unconscious he was stabilized by the emergency services on the Basseta de l’Oli beach in the historic capital of the Marina Baixa.
La Roqueta beach is located in the southern tip of the Guardamar town centre and, like the rest of the municipality’s coastline, is still without a lifeguard and rescue service.
The season begins next Saturday, June 15 and will end on October 15.
On Saturday a maximum temperature of 25.9 degrees was recorded in Guardamar, which encouraged those who spent the day on the beach to get into the water. The wind had maximum gusts of 33 kilometres per hour, according to the Valencian Meteorological Association (Avamet).
