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Date Published: 07/10/2021
ARCHIVED - Pensioner drowns on Mazarron beach: seventh drowning victim this year
In the first nine months of 2021 seven people have died from drowning in the Region of Murcia
A 77-year-old woman has died in another tragic drowning incident at a beach in Puerto de Mazarrón, bringing the total number of drowning victims in the Region of Murcia up to seven so far in 2021.
Several people spotted the elderly woman unconscious in the sea at around 1pm on Wednesday October 6 and pulled her from the water. Following instructions from the 112 phone operator, the witnesses performed emergency CPR and a cardiac massage until the emergency services arrived.
Despite their efforts, nothing could be done for the pensioner and she became the seventh drowning victim in the Region this year, and this is far from an isolated case, as the neighbouring province of Alicante has registered three drownings in just two weeks.
On a national scale, there were 214 drownings between January 1 and September 30 this year, which is a 28% decrease compared to 2020. The Spanish region with the highest number of deaths by drowning was the Comunidad Valenciana, with 40, followed by Catalonia (38), Andalusia (34) and the Canary Islands (21).
Although August and July 2021 registered lower figures than the same months in both 2019 and 2020, probably due to the coronavirus pandemic, September has seen an alarming increase in drownings, with 31 cases in the past month.
Unfortunately, a large number of drowning victims are elderly swimmers as 38.7% of registered victims in Spain are over the age of 65 and most of the deceased were males (79%). In addition, 48.6% were Spanish or from other European countries and 80% of the drownings took place between 10am and 8pm.
Image: Archive / Ayuntamiento de Orihuela
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