Witness tells of search for 11-year-old who died after going missing at water park

A mum-of-two has told of the desperate search for an 11-year-old girl who died after going missing at a water park in Windsor. Customers at Liquid Leisure near Datchet were told to shout the girl’s name as they looked for her after she got into difficulty on Saturday (August 6), the witness said.

Emergency services including a helicopter, an ambulance and a search and rescue crew were called to the scene at around 3.55pm. The girl was found at around 5.10pm before being rushed to Wexham Park Hospital, but died, Thames Valley Police said.

A mother-of-two, who did not want to be named, said it had initially been hoped the girl would have made it back to shore safely. The 34-year-old woman, who lives outside Reading and was at the park with her sons, said: “Around 3.45pm lifeguards and the friends and family of the little girl started running along the main walkways that run alongside the lake shouting her name.

Read more:Girl, 11, dies after incident at water park, police confirm

“I later learnt that they were hoping she’d somehow managed to make it back to the shoreline and was in shock or passed out. They were asking all of us to shout her name, describing her as shoulder height on an adult, with shoulder-length brown hair.

The witness said lifeguards and strong swimmers jumped into the water to look for the girl before emergency services arrived but nothing could be done.

“We went back to the car, but it was gridlocked and the emergency vehicles were blocking the exit,” she said. “My car was directly next to that of another family and the mum in the other vehicle looked across at me and we both just burst into tears.

“By this point, she’d been missing 60-70 mins and it was evident that the likelihood of her being OK