EYEWITNESSES have spoken of the horrific moment when a father discovered his only son had drowned in a swimming pool at a neighbour's Spanish villa,

The two-year-old boy's body was discovered at around 10.30am yesterday on Azor Street in a neighbourhood called El Coto in Mijas Costa, near Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol.

The child's parents, originally from Britain but living in Spain, had been frantically searching for their son, who had been missing for more than an hour.

They had already made a number of calls to the emergency services when the toddler was found

It is believed the tragic incident occurred after the boy fell into a private swimming pool as he walked along a wall separating his family home from a neighbouring property, which was empty at the time.

The family's landlord told Spanish newspaper 'El Mundo' that he heard the boy's father calling out for his son yesterday morning, after enlisting the help of local police to find the missing boy.

"I found his father giving desperate cries for his son," said the landlord.

"As a last resort he looked out over the wall between the two houses and found him there, (next door) floating in the pool.

"He quickly jumped the wall and I went out there to find the keys of that house, as I have a copy," he said.

A local resident said when he first heard the screams, he thought a fight was taking place.

"Initially I thought it was a fight but it turned out the child had drowned. (He) was purple. (They) tried mouth-to-mouth, but to no avail. It was not known how long (the boy) had been in the pool."

Emergency services were quick to arrive at the scene of the incident but they were unable to save the child's life.

The Civil Guard in the municipality of Mijas is leading the investigation into the death.

A spokesman for the Mijas town hall said the investigation was concentrating on the theory that the child was walking down the wall between the house where the family lived and the adjoining house when he accidentally fell into the water.

Neighbours said that at the time of the incident the cottage where the pool was empty.

The town is popular with tourists but the area where the boy died is also home to many ex-patatriate Irish families.

A post-mortem examination will be carried out on the boy's body later today.

Irish Independent