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Over 400 deaths a year from drowning in Spain: report

Xinhua, June 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

A report published on Wednesday shows that over 400 people in Spain die from drowning every year.

The report, which was published by the Mapfre Foundation comes at the start of the summer holiday season in Spain, where public and swimming pools have opened and many people seek to cool down by having a swim either there or in rivers, lakes or in the sea.

The report discovered that 422 people drowned in Spain in 2013 and 438 the previous year, although swimming pools are not the most dangerous places for swimmers.

The study discovered that although between 14-19 percent of death happen in swimming pools, 70 percent take place in natural settings, such as lakes, rivers and the sea, or in reservoirs.

"Spain is a country with a large number of aquatic spaces, both natural ones which are inland and on the coast, as well as artificial ones," highlights the report, which added "these spaces also have numerous accidents and deaths for various reasons, most frequently from drowning."

The study shows that certain groups are far more at risk of drowning than others, given that over 80 percent of victims are male and the greatest number of deaths occurred in men aged over 60.

There were other peaks in the age groups 5-9 years of age, 20-24 and 50-54, with around 90 percent of the incidents happening during recreational swimming, rather than other kinds of accidents, and that 83 percent of deaths in the sea happened when swimming was permitted.

Investigators also discovered that one out of every 39 "life threatening incidents," which happened at the beach ended in tragedy. Endit