Officers investigating an incident where a girl tragically died after being recovered from the water at Durdle Door are appealing for witnesses to come forward.
At around 11.30am today, Wednesday 18 April 2018, HM Coastguard received reports of a child and a woman in distress in the water at Durdle Door in Dorset.
The woman was rescued from the water by a member of the public. A Ministry of Defence military range safety vessel, which was in the area and responded to a Mayday broadcast, recovered the girl from the water.
The five-year-old girl, from Salisbury, was taken by the RNLI Weymouth Lifeboat to Weymouth and transferred by the ambulance service to Dorset County Hospital, where she was sadly pronounced dead.
Detective Inspector Steve May, of Dorset Police, said: “Our thoughts are with the family of the young girl involved at this very difficult time.
“At this time there is nothing to suggest this was anything other than a tragic accident however, with the sudden death of any child we have an obligation to carry out an investigation to establish the full circumstances of what happened.
“I am appealing to anyone who witnessed how the girl came to be in the water and has not already spoken to police to contact us immediately.
“There were also a number of visitors in the area at the time and I am appealing to anyone who may have filmed or photographed the incident to please get in touch as it may assist our investigation.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Dorset Police at www.dorset.police.uk, via email [email protected] or by calling 101, quoting incident number 18:127.
