A five-year-old girl has died after being rescued from the sea near a Dorset beauty spot.
The HM Coastguard was alert to the incident after a child, from Salisbury, entered the water with an adult woman at around 11.30am this morning, Wednesday 18 April.
The woman was rescued from the water by a member of the public. A Ministry of Defence military vessel, which was in the area and responded to a Mayday broadcast, recovered the girl from the water.
The five-year-old girl was taken by the RNLI Weymouth Lifeboat to Weymouth and transferred by the ambulance service to Dorset County Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Detective Inspector Steve May, of Dorset Police, said: “Our thoughts are with the family of the young girl involved at this very difficult time.
“At this time there is nothing to suggest this was anything other than a tragic accident however, with the sudden death of any child we have an obligation to carry out an investigation to establish the full circumstances of what happened.
“I am appealing to anyone who witnessed how the girl came to be in the water and has not already spoken to police to contact us immediately.
“There were also a number of visitors in the area at the time and I am appealing to anyone who may have filmed or photographed the incident to please get in touch as it may assist our investigation.”
