All-night pool party ends in stoney silence

IT WAS a raucous all-night party that ended in stoney silence.

From 1am onwards, holiday-makers staying in the poolside apartments at the Jable Bermudas Apartments in Lanzarote were woken by horseplay.

“There was ructions here all night. There was shouting and roaring and people running up along by the pool,” said Alice De La Cour from Cork.

Her holiday apartment was on the ground-floor and she called the police before Dublin man Keith Murphy drowned shortly before 5am.

“It was getting worse as the night went on. We said “to hell with this” and tried calling security but there was nobody on. There was drunk people running so I called the police and they said to ring the emergency service, so we did.

“It sounded so aggressive and we were afraid it was going to turn into something worse. We couldn’t do anything else. The emergency services came after about 10-15 minutes but it had all gone quiet,” she said.

Ruth O’Mahony from Ballincollig was staying in a room looking onto the small 1.35-metre-deep pool and was woken by her daughter who witnessed what happened.

“It was five to five. I had been woken up by my daughter who was looking out from the front room. She came in and said an ambulance had come and they were pumping on somebody’s chest.

“There was a man on the ground with four to six paramedics doing CPR, he still had his feet hanging over the edge of the pool. And there was a sun-lounger floating in the pool, but I don’t know when that got there.”

Witnesses said by yesterday morning the apartment complex had returned to normal and after Mr Murphy’s body was removed at 7.30am there was little evidence of the tragedy except for the presence of photographers and journalists.

Tour operators organised a briefing for other guests last night.