sexta-feira, 30 de julho de 2010

British girl, 9, killed in rafting tragedy in Turkey


A girl of nine was killed and a 12-year-old boy was seriously hurt when their inflatable boat capsized during a white water rafting trip with their family in Turkey. 

Cerys and Marcus Potter were thrown from their raft after it apparently hit rocks and overturned near the resort of Dalaman. 

The children disappeared in the fast-flowing water but Marcus was discovered badly injured and clinging to a rock.

The distraught family, a rafting instructor and Turkish police searched for Cerys for more than an hour before her crushed body was finally found trapped between rocks.

Rescue workers carried her body 300 yards along the river’s banks on a makeshift stretcher before it was taken to a local mortuary and then transported 200 miles for a post-mortem. 

Marcus, who is believed to be Cerys’s cousin, was last night said to be ‘improving steadily’ at Yucelen Hospital, near Dalaman in south-west Turkey. 

The family are from the village of Llancarfan Glamorgan, South Wales, and were part of a large group staying in the town of Fethiye. 

Cerys’s parents Terence and Julie Potter, whose elder son James, 13, is also thought to have been caught up in the rafting accident, have remained in Turkey. 

Mr Potter, 50, is believed to be a company director. 

Twelve Britons paid £35 each to go white water rafting on Wednesday afternoon along a nine-mile stretch of the fast-flowing Dalaman Cayi river, where there are 12 areas of rapids.

Daily Mail