Game in pool ends in tragedy

What started out as an endurance game between friends ended in tragedy for 27-year-old Domenico Caputo who drowned in a hotel pool earlier this week.

The Neapolitan man, who was in Malta on holiday, was in the pool of La Vallette Hotel in Paceville with friends on Wednesday afternoon.

Sources said Mr Caputo and his friends were trying to outdo each other in a competition to establish who could remain underwater longest. One by one, his friends surfaced but soon realised that Mr Caputo was still underwater. They found him unconscious and pulled him out of the pool, police sources said.

His friends administered first aid until paramedics arrived in an ambulance. He was taken to hospital where he was declared dead.

An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was asphyxia by drowning.