A British boy aged four has died after drowning in a swimming pool in Mauritius. Ozair Ali had been on holiday with his family when the tragedy happened, an island nation in the Indian Ocean.
Ozair, from Cumbernauld, north Lanarkshire, was taken to hospital from the Lux Hotel in the Belle Mare resort in the Flacq region. Doctors were unable to revive him and he died on Tuesday, June 28 at the Dr Bruno Cheong Hospital, the Scottish Daily Express reports.
The boy’s father wrote on social media: “He was the sweetest, sweetest boy in the world, with the right dose of cheekiness and love. He would instantly light up a room and drew everyone towards him with his loving personality.
“In his short 4 and a half years, he has given us so many memories which we will cherish everyday and I will take the sorrow of his departure to my grave. Your baba waits for the day we are reunited.”
The Mauritius Police Force said in a statement: “He was swimming in the hotel’s pool in company of his family members, when at about [2pm] his father noticed that he was having difficulty breathing. He was immediately removed to a safe place.
“All the emergency agencies attended within good [time]. The cause of death was, after an autopsy, certified to be ‘asphyxia, due to drowning’.”
A spokesman for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said the family were being supported after they flew his body home to Scotland.
The burial took place at Cumbernauld cemetery but his funeral was held at Glasgow Central Mosque on Friday, July 1.
