An afternoon dip on a sunny day at Mellieha's Ghadira Bay turned into tragedy on Saturday when 30-year-old spinster Romina Abela, found herself in difficulty while swimming and, despite being resuscitated, died yesterday morning in hospital.

The police said yesterday they received reports about the incident at around 1.45 p.m. on Saturday.

Paul Ellul, managing director of the Ghadira Sailing Centre and Lido, said the woman had been floating in the water for some 15 minutes before bathers realised what was going on.

"Some customers of ours thought it was a large plastic bag in the water, until somebody realised it was actually the body of a woman floating and started screaming out for help," Mr Ellul told The Times.

The sea was calm and the woman could not have been swimming in more than a depth of one metre, he said.

The Sailing Centre was incidentally holding a team-building event and a number of volunteers rushed to pull the body out of the water.

Two young paramedics who happened to be on site, Bernard Micallef Cann and Natalino Spiteri, turned out to be the heroes of the afternoon. Twenty-five long minutes after starting to administer CPR, they got the woman's heart beating again, Mr Micallef Cann said.

She was taken to St Luke's Hospital for treatment but sources who were on site believe she had swallowed too much water.

Four relatives of the woman, including two children, were at the beach while 50 or so bathers looked on in shock.

Though Ghadira Bay is known for its shallow waters, Mr Ellul said this did not mean it was free of danger.

"I find it odd that there are two lifeguards at the small St George's Bay and in one of Malta's largest beaches there are none," he said.

Magistrate Tonio Micallef Trigona was informed of the case and ordered that an autopsy be carried out. The police are investigating.

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