UAE: Toddler drowns in hotel swimming pool

Ras Al Khaimah: Ras Al Khaimah Police have launched an investigation into the death of a 27-month-old Emirati boy who reportedly drowned in the swimming pool of a hotel in Khuzam area here on Saturday night.

People present at the spot pulled him out of the pool and gave him first aid but couldn't save the toddler's life. The victim, identified as MSB, reached the hotel with his mother a day before the incident.

Around 11.45pm, one of the hotel’s guests found the boy in the hotel’s swimming pool and following his alert, people rushed to the pool and pulled the boy out of the water. The access to the pool was closed then, and there was no lifeguard around.

“We received a call from the hotel, saying that a small boy was drowned in the swimming pool. When we reached the spot, the boy had been transferred to the hospital where he was declared dead,” a police official said. The police are investigating how the boy reached the swimming pool.

The boy was later transferred to Saqr Hospital.

Salem Mohammad, the grandfather of the child, said that the little boy was accompanied by his mother and sister aged four when the accident occurred. According to his mother's statement, the pool was for adults.

The hotel placed two signs around the swimming pool after its closure. The first sign indicates that the swimming hours extend from 9am to 8pm, while the second says that, "there is no lifeguard, and swimming will be your responsibility."

Al Madina Police have summoned eyewitnesses and hotel staff for questioning.

On Sunday, the boy's body was buried at Alfulaya Cemetery in Ras Al Khaimah.

In a recent incident on December 15, a four-year-old Emirati boy and an Ethiopian maid were found dead in a hotel swimming pool.