Triplets drown in backyard pool

The 18-month-old triplets of an Italian UN World Food Programme official drowned at a home on the outskirts of Panama City, it emerged today.

The three children, two girls and a boy, chased their dog out into the yard yesterday and fell into the pool, said Alejandro Lopez Chicheri, the programme’s spokesman in Panama. He declined to give further details.

“The family is completely destroyed ... and requests privacy,” he said.

He did not identify the family by name, but said the children were Italian citizens whose father worked at the World Food Programme in Panama.

Local prosecutors said the deaths were being investigated, but appeared to be accidental.