The boyfriend of one of the two British women who reportedly drowned in the seaby the Spanish resort of Lloret de Mar has paid tribute to a “beautiful, hardworking girl”.
The women, named in reports as Birmingham residents Lisa Coggins and Tracey Aston, died after going for a swim in the early hours of Thursday morning. Postmortems on the bodies are expected to take place on Friday.
Coggins, Aston and three friends were holidaying together in Lloret de Mar, one of the most popular holiday resorts on the Costa Brava. They are understood to have been posing for photos on the beach when two of them went into the water, despite being warned not to, due to strong winds. Weather warnings were also in place.
One of the women got into trouble in the rough waters and a third friend went to rescue her. They both got swept away at around 4.15am, and their bodies were discovered seven hours later in waters near the resort. The third friend is understood to have made it back to shore.
Speaking from his home in Birmingham, Coggins’s boyfriend, Mario Sassano, 36, paid tribute to his girlfriend, whom he described as a “hardworking girl – just beautiful”.
He told the Birmingham Mail that Coggins was with her sisters and friend at the time. “She had two children. We do not know how the news will be broken to them,” he said. Aston’s husband Aaron said he was “devastated”.
Locals said a security guard at a beachfront bar saw the women as they posed for pictures and warned them not to go in the sea. A man who works with the security guard at the bar said: “He saw them in the sea taking photos and then called the cops. Of course he is very shaken up by what he has seen.”
A nearby restaurant worker described the waves as four metres high. “They came all the way to the beach bars,” he said. “A night watchman at one of the bars spoke to the girls. He said not to go swimming, but two girls went swimming.
“One of the girls returned but one did not, she got into problems in the water. Her friend went in to try to save her and she did not come back.”
Spanish search and rescue service official Salvamento Maritímo said Coggins and Aston were reported missing at 4.15am on Thursday. He said the bodies of the women, believed to be aged 33 and 36, were found shortly after noon local time and had been taken to the neighbouring town of Blanes, 40 miles north of Barcelona.
Rock Badfrozien, from the Catalan police, said they were among a group of five women from Birmingham on holiday in the area. He said: “They went to the beach in the night and the sea was in very bad condition. Two of them, these women, I don’t know how old they are, went into the water, and they died in the water.
“We don’t know what has happened, but the sea was in very bad condition, with a red flag on the beach. There was very drastic conditions, and it was dangerous to go into the sea in those conditions.”
A spokesperson for the town hall in Lloret de Mar told Spanish website the Local that a group of five women had been warned not to go into the sea by a security guard at a beach bar, but two went in anyway.
Ana Riera told the website: “It seems one of the original swimmers was able to get to shore but the other was struggling, so a friend went to her rescue and they both got swept out to sea.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We can confirm the death of two British nationals who had been reported missing in Lloret de Mar on October 1.
“We are providing support to the families and those who were travelling with the individuals at this difficult time.”
