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A baby dolphin has died after sunbathers reportedly pulled it from the sea and posed for selfies with it on a packed tourist beach.

The small female, still of breastfeeding age, lost its mother and became stranded in shallow waters off the coast of southern Spain.

Holidaymakers allegedly took it out of the water, before stroking it and passing it round for pictures on the beach in Mojacar last week.

Children were seen accidentally covering the creature's blowhole as they joined the crowds gathering around to photograph and touch it.

Marine conservationists raced to the scene at the seaside resort in Almería province, which is popular with British ex-pats and tourists.

(Image: SOLARPIX.COM) (Image: SOLARPIX.COM)

However, the dolphin was already dead when they arrived.

Equinac, a group which protects marine wildlife in the area, reported the heartbreaking incident on its Facebook page.

It criticised the bathers for being “obsessed” with taking photographs.

It said: “Humans are the most irrational animal there is. Many people are unable to feel empathy for a living being which is frightened, starving hungry, without its mother and terrified. In their selfishness, all they want is to photograph it and touch it, even if the animal is suffering from stress.”

It is unclear whether any Brits were involved in the incident last Friday.

(Image: SOLARPIX.COM)

Equinac claimed hundreds of bathers rushed towards the animal, desperate for a glimpse or a photo, after it was pulled out of the water.

It said the lifeguard “lost his nerve when he saw hundreds of people rushing towards the animal”.

Equinac experts arrived 15 minutes later, but the animal was already dead.

The group added: “The animal was submitted to the curiosity of those who wanted to photograph and touch it. The photographs showed children touching the animal, unintentionally covering the spiracle (blowhole).

“It’s not an animal for children or adults to caress.

(Image: SOLARPIX.COM)

“Cetaceans are very susceptible to stress, and crowding round it to take photos and to touch it causes them a big shock which greatly accelerates a cardiorespiratory failure, which is what happened.

“We’re not saying that the bathers were responsible for it becoming stranded.

"It became stranded because it was sick or because it lost its mother, without whom it cannot survive.

“But crowding round to photograph and touch it of course causes these animals to become extremely stressed.”

The group said the bathers should have called emergency services. It added: “Maybe we would not have been able to save it, but we would have tried.”

(Image: SOLARPIX.COM)

Last April, sunbathers in Argentina were branded “selfie-taking scum” after allegedly taking a dolphin out of the water and posing for selfies.

Prosecutors there launched an investigation to discover who took the animal, from an endangered species, from the water.

A tourist who filmed the scenes later said it was already dead before it was paraded along the beach, south of Buenos Aires.