A young woman desperately tried to save her father and grandfather with a towel before they drowned in a Gold Coast hotel pool.
Dharmvir Singh, 38, and Gurjinder Singh, 65, lost consciousness after jumping into the rooftop pool of Top of the Mark Holiday Apartments in Surfers Paradise fully clothed just before 7pm on Sunday.
They had been trying to save the young man’s wife and two-year-old daughter, who got into trouble when they became adrift in deeper waters.
While the woman and small child managed to reach safety, the two men ran into trouble.
A seven-year-old girl, the older sister of the two-year-old boy, tried to reach her father and grandfather from the water’s edge with a towel to pull them to safety as they thrashed in the water.
Unfortunately, their desperate rescue efforts were unable to save the two men.
The two men were pulled from the water by bystanders who performed CPR until emergency services arrived. However, the couple suffered cardiac arrest and tragically could not be saved.
A father and grandfather died after jumping into a Gold Coast hotel pool to rescue a toddler who had fallen.
Dharmvir Singh and Gurjinder Singh were discovered unconscious in the rooftop pool of Top of the Mark Holiday Apartments in Surfers Paradise just before 7pm on Sunday.
Signs on the perimeter of the pool indicate that the pool is 2.1 meters deep at its deepest point and one meter deep at the shallowest end.
It is understood the family was visiting the Gold Coast from Victoria.
A family friend reportedly told the media that the two men would be “dearly missed.”
“Maybe God took the good people early, and that’s what happened,” he said, according to courier mail.
‘It is a very big blow for his family.
“I have promised his wife that anything we, as friends, can (do) help, we will do.”
Mitchell Ware, of the Queensland Ambulance Service, said it was an “extremely emotional scene”.
“Obviously, anyone could understand that, not just losing one family member, but losing two family members,” Mitchell said.
Dharmvir Singh (pictured) jumped into the pool to save his daughter along with his father, Gurjinder Singh.
The pool is at the top of the apartment block, several floors above the street.
The pool is at the top of the apartment block, several stories above the street, and was being used by other families at the time of the tragedy.
Ware said tragic incidents like Sunday morning’s double death affected the entire community.
“These incidents can have lasting effects not only for the family members involved, but also for the people who were at the scene,” he said.
Ware said it was unclear whether flotation devices were available at the pool, adding that the depth of the water did not make much of a difference for those who are not strong swimmers.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.
Australia has been rocked by a series of drownings in recent months, with more than 90 people killed between December 1 and February 29 this year.
Last month, a 13-year-old girl was orphaned after her parents Leslie, 49, and Jon Ballo, 50, drowned while crabbing in Western Australia.
The couple, both Filipinos, were recovered by police from the water near the Herron Point boat ramp in Birchmont.
Leslie, 49, and Jon Ballo, 50, a Filipino couple who arrived in Perth nine years ago, died while crabbing last month.
In early March, an international student was pulled from a waterfall in Queensland after going missing.
The 20-year-old disappeared on March 10 at around 3pm after jumping from a ledge into the water at Crystal Cascades, west of Cairns, and failing to surface.
Emergency services launched a search and rescue operation to find the young man.
Brisbane Police divers assisted in the search and located the young man’s body at around 6pm the next day.
It is understood the tourist was swept downstream after swimming at the top of a series of waterfalls, an area marked as a no-swimming zone.