Parents of girl, 11, who drowned at water park say ordeal 'was like a nightmare'

The search for an 11-year-old girl who horrifically , during a at a water park, was "like a nightmare", an heard. Trouble struck when Kyra Hill got into difficulty while in a designated area of a lake at Liquid Leisure near , .

A 17-year-old lifeguard spotted her going under and searched that part of the water before leaving to alert staff but 37 minutes passed between Kyra struggling and being called, Berkshire Coroner’s Court heard. Kyra was seen going under the water at 3.20pm and emergency services were called to the scene at 3.57pm. The 11-year-old was found just after 5.10pm and she was rushed to Wexham Park in Slough, where she was pronounced dead.

The inquest heard what happened at the water park in those minutes and hours after Kyra vanished. The Coroner’s Court was told the 15 metre by 19 metre beach area was not cleared of people until emergency crews arrived.

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Watersport manager David Novell ordered searches on land and in other parts of the lake, but not in the designated swimming zone where she disappeared, the hearing was told. Conflicting and incorrect information started to circulate at the water park, including that Kyra left the water or swam to various locations.

Novell told the inquest the first-responding lifeguard, named Abbi, appeared "confused" and was "unsure as to what exactly had occurred", given the contradicting reports that Kyra had exited the water. However, Abbi, then a schoolgirl, dived three times in the area where Kyra disappeared and CCTV showed her pointing there during a conversation with Novell and Liquid Leisure owner and director Stuart Marston.

A mother looking for Kyra said loud was playing and that she shouted at a senior member of staff to turn it off. Kelly Edwards, who was at the birthday party, said she had to tell staff to ask members of the public to leave the area.

Edwards said the lifeguard, who appeared a "little girl", also told her daughter to keep searching for Kyra in the water. The mother said: "She (Kyra) was seen in the water, and for myself and for us we were told she was missing, so we were looking on the land, and to know someone had seen her and said ‘I’ve seen someone gone down in the water’, and for her not to be listened to. I couldn’t, can’t get my head around it."

She added: "It just felt like I was in this nightmare, the sort of thing you watch on the TV and you, you think, well, that would never happen."

The administration services manager recalled "shouting, screaming Kyra’s name" as she walked around the park. She became emotional as she told the inquest: "It just seemed that nothing was taken seriously, nothing was deemed as an emergency, and I feel so angry with myself every day that I came out (of the water) and no-one went to the children and asked them where Kyra was."

Members of the public got out after the mother started screaming "can everyone just stop and start calling Kyra’s name, because she must be somewhere", she said.

People gathered in a line to swim the width of the lake, she said, adding she believed this was ordered by a lifeguard. They swam past the designated swimming area and into the main lake, the inquest heard.

One person suggested diving down with goggles, but a staff member said "no, no, no, you can’t dive down because it’s almost like being in the ocean, your breathing and everything has got to be taken into account – it’s really, really deep", Edwards said.

She told the inquest: "There was another guest there and I was saying ‘I can’t see in the water, once you’ve put your head down it’s so murky you couldn’t see anything’. It was so deep, it was so deep in that area, I said ‘I can’t get to the bottom’ and he said ‘no, nor can I’."

The inquest heard the only depth-warning signs around that area were "danger shallow water" and Edwards said she thought it would therefore be "knee height" but she said "you only had to step a few feet and it just dropped, massively". The lake was 2.68m (8.8ft) deep where Kyra was seen going under, a report carried out after the incident found.

Novell told Edwards the missing girl could be in a toilet, the , could have left the gates, or be under the water, during a conversation she recorded. He accepted that they carried out a search suitable for a missing or lost child rather than one for someone who did not emerge from the water.

The manager told the inquest it was a "horrible situation"but given the information he had at the time he would not have acted differently, saying: "We did the best we could".

Owner Mr Marston said no one on site was trained to rescue someone submerged in the water and that remains the case at the park. He said: "It’s common practice around the country."