Alberto Lejarraga
ANDALUCIA is the region in Spain where more people have drowned this summer, with a total of 38 people losing their lives in the water, two of them minors.
Of these deaths, 21 occurred at the sea, eight in swimming pools, two in rivers and eight in other aquatic spaces.
These figures have led Andalucia to be the Spanish autonomous community with more drowning deaths between January and July 2023.
The region is followed by Catalonia (37), the Valencian Community (33), the Canary Islands (31), Galicia (23), Baleares (15), Asturias (13) and Castilla y Leon (12).
In Spain, a total of 249 people drowned to death during the first seven months of the year, the worst figures since 2017, when 305 people lost their lives in this way in the same time period.
“The number of tourists in Andalucia has increased and the greater the number of bathers, the higher the risk,” Isabel Garcia, President of the Spanish Federation of Lifesaving, said.
Garcia added that society thinks everyone knows how to swim, but that this is far from true.
She insisted: “Many people go to the beach early in the morning but lifeguards don’t arrive until 11am, with a number of swimmers drowning during this time frame.”
“And many people have been rescued, which means that the number of drowning deaths could have been so much higher,” Garcia concluded.
Read more:
- British tourist in Spain’s Ibiza drowns after going for swim in the sea
- Eight people drown in Spain in the space of just 24 hours
- Three-year-old and his dad die after drowning in a swimming pool in Mallorca
