Tragic detail revealed after double drowning
A seven-year-old girl tried to use a towel as a rope in a desperate attempt to save her father and grandfather from drowning in a Gold Coast swimming pool.
Dharmvir Singh, 38, and his father Gurjinder Singh, 65, drowned in the pool at the Top of the Mark holiday apartments in Surfers Paradise after Dharmvir’s two-year-old daughter fell into the pool’s deep end on Sunday evening.
CCTV footage being studied by police investigators has revealed how the tragedy unfolded in a matter of minutes.
The girl and her mother were playing in the shallow end of the pool when the young child lost her balance and drifted into deep water.
The girl’s mother rushed to save her but ran into difficulty herself, prompting her husband and the child’s grandfather, who were relaxing poolside, to jump into the water to rescue them.
While the mother and child made it to safety, the girl’s elder sister, who was standing on the pool’s edge, attempted to use a towel to pull the two men out of the water as they struggled to stay afloat.
Sadly, desperate rescue efforts could not save the two men.
Emergency services arrived at the scene within minutes to find the pair unconscious at the rooftop pool.
Paramedics and an off-duty doctor performed CPR, but the men couldn’t be revived.
Signs on the pools perimeter indicate the pool is 2.1 metres deep at its deepest point and one metre deep at the shallow end.
It’s understood the family were on a holiday to the Gold Coast from Clyde North, 46km southeast of Melbourne.
A family friend reportedly told the media that the two men would be “sorely missed”.
“Maybe God take good people early, so that’s what happened,” he said, according to The Courier Mail.
“It’s a very big blow to their family.
“I have promised to his wife that whatever we as friends can (do to) help, we will do.”