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5 months ago
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A father and grandfather have died after jumping into a hotel pool on the Gold Coast to rescue a toddler who'd fallen in.
The men, aged 38 and 65, lost consciousness after jumping into the rooftop pool at the Top of the Mark Holiday Apartments in Surfers Paradise just before 7pm on Sunday.
They were pulled from the water by family members who performed CPR until emergency services arrived but the pair were tragically unable to be saved.
A father and grandfather have died after jumping into a hotel pool on the Gold Coast to rescue a toddler who'd fallen in
The men, 38 and 65, were discovered unconscious in the rooftop pool at the Top of the Mark Holiday Apartments in Surfers Paradise just before 7pm on Sunday
A two-year-old child had been playing on the side of the pool when they slipped off a step and fell in.
The child's mother then jumped in after the child, but she couldn't swim, prompting the toddler's father and grandfather to jump in fully clothed after her.
The two men got into trouble in the pool and drowned.
The child was rescued unharmed while the mother was taken to hospital in a stable condition.
It's understood the family were visiting the Gold Coast from Victoria.
'It's an extremely emotional scene,' Mitchell Ware from Queensland Ambulance Service said.
The pool is on top of the apartment block, several stories above the street
Leslie, 49, and Jon Ballo, 50, a Filipino couple who arrived in Perth nine years ago, died while crabbing last month
'Obviously, anyone could understand that not just to lose one family member but to lose two family members.'
The pool is on top of the apartment block, several stories above the street.
Australia has been rocked by a spate of drownings over summer.
Last month, a 13-year-old girl was left orphaned after her parents Leslie, 49, and Jon Ballo, 50, drowned while crabbing in Western Australia.
The couple, who are both Filipino, were recovered by police from the water near the Herron Point boat ramp in Birchmont.
Earlier in March, an international student was pulled from a waterfall in Queensland after going missing.
The 20-year-old went missing on March 10 at about 3pm after he leapt from a ledge into water at Crystal Cascades, west of Cairns, and failed to surface.
A search and rescue operation was launched by emergency services to find the young man.
Police divers from Brisbane aided in the search and located the young man's body at about 6pm the next day.
It is understood the tourist was swept downstream after swimming at the top of a set of waterfalls - an area marked as a no-swim zone.
More to come
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