Police search for mother of girl injured in balcony fall

POLICE in Majorca were yesterday continuing their search for the mother of a British girl who plunged from a hotel balcony.

Gianna Cooper, 7, was seriously injured in the fall from the fifth floor of the Hotel Samoa in Calas de Majorca at 7.30am on Monday.

Officers on the Balearic island were looking for the girl’s mother, Sara, who has not been seen since the accident.

Sara had been on a half-term break with her husband Martin Ian Cooper, Gianna, and two older sons, police said.

Gianna remains in intensive care at Hospital Universitario Son Dureta in the island’s capital Palma.

She suffered a broken jaw bone, fluid and blood in her lungs, and a damaged liver and gall bladder in the fall.

A spokesman for the hospital said she was transferred from a hospital in Manacor where she underwent surgery.

The spokesman said: “She is in a serious condition but she is stable.”

Asked if her condition was improving, he said she was “stabilising”.

A police spokeswoman said: “We do not know where the mother is. There are witnesses who are speaking with police and staff at the hotel. We are looking for the mother but at this stage we do not want to speculate as to whether she was involved. We are searching for her in the area of Calas de Majorca which is an area containing mountains and beach.”

She added that police were watching the borders so Sara would be spotted if she attempted to leave the island. The only routes out are by plane or boat.

While the hospital insisted Gianna was five years old, a police spokeswoman said the girl was aged 7 and her brothers were 13 and 11.

She said: “The girl is very small and so could be taken to be younger than seven.”

Neighbours said that her mother Sara and father, known as Ian, had four children, Stephen, James, Jonathan and Gianna.

One neighbour, who lives next door to the Coopers’ detached home in a quiet cul-de-sac in Foxton, Cambridgeshire said: “The family has been here for about four years. Ian works for a pharmaceutical company. They are a lovely family. Ian is a member of the local tennis club. All we know is that they had gone on holiday.”

Another neighbour added: “We’re all hoping that Gianna will pull through. She’s a lovely little girl and it’s a terrible shock.”

Humphrey Carter, a journalist with the Majorca Daily Bulletin, said the youngster appeared to have fallen about 10m (around 30ft) at the Hotel Samoa in Calas de Majorca on the east coast of the island.

He said: “We’ve been told she was taken to the Manacor hospital for immediate medical attention, but has now been transferred to the Son Dureta Hospital.

“It looks like the mother was at the hotel when the girl fell and has disappeared since then,” Mr Carter said.