Prosecutors investigate after girl nearly drowns in hotel pool

Prosecutors have opened an investigation after an eight-year-old girl was resuscitated following an accident in a hotel pool in Dornbirn, ORF Vorarlberg reported. The case is being investigated on suspicion of negligent bodily injury, a prosecution service spokesperson said.

The Vorarlberg police confirmed a report by the Vorarlberger Nachrichten that the girl became trapped beneath an underwater lounger at the Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Dornbirn’s Panoramahaus on October 29. She had been playing in the pool with other children when, for reasons that remain unclear, she became stuck between the lounger’s bars.

Her father and another adult freed her. She was resuscitated and taken to hospital. The hotel’s managing director, Anton Gustav Birnbaum, told the Vorarlberger Nachrichten that she has since been discharged and is doing well.

Birnbaum said the pool was temporarily closed after the incident and reopened the following day after an expert cleared it. Prosecutors have received an initial report and will commission an expert assessment of the pool’s physical and technical conditions before deciding whether anyone can be held responsible. The investigation is proceeding in all directions, the spokesperson said.