Christmas tragedy at Center Parcs: Four-year-old boy dies in 'horrific' incident at resort swimming pool

A four-year-old boy has died in a swimming pool at a Center Parcs resort, police said.

Wiltshire Police said officers had attended the leisure complex at Longleat, Wiltshire in support of the South West Ambulance Service on Christmas Eve morning.

“Sadly, it’s been confirmed that a four-year-old boy has died following an incident at Center Parcs Longleat Forest near Warminster shortly after 11am this morning,” a Wiltshire Police spokesman said.

“This is not being treated as suspicious.

“Our thoughts are with the boy’s family at this difficult time.”

Staff were reportedly in floods of tears as lifeguards at the resort desperately tried to resuscitate the boy, to no avail.

Center Parcs said in a statement: 'We can confirm there has been a serious incident in the Subtropical Swimming Paradise at Longleat Forest this morning and we will update further when it's appropriate to do so."

Police did not give any further information but said their thoughts were with the child's family.

A witness told The Sun her family watched the "horrific" incident unfold this morning close to the wave pool at the park.

Her husband told her a member of the public helped pull a young boy from the water.

The mum added: "My daughter and son saw it as well - she’s quite upset.”

One holidaymaker staying at Centre Parcs for Christmas told the PA news agency: “Thankfully we didn’t see anything. We noticed a big crowd all leaving the plaza.

“We were headed back to our lodge to have lunch before swimming. I checked my phone and saw the pool was closed due to an incident.

“Obviously that’s all we knew originally.

“The plaza is all open, the parc market, gift shops, etc – there is just a temporary barrier across the entrance to the pool itself.”

The mother-of-five, from the Midlands, said the resort had made public announcements that the sub-tropical swimming paradise would remain closed for Christmas Eve.

“If I hadn’t been on the group or seen the announcement on the news, I’d have been none the wiser,” she said.

“It’s very quiet though… It does say there’ll be an announcement later on today re the pool.”