An 11-year-old girl from Birkirkara drowned in a river in Austria where she was vacationing with her family.
Austrian media reported that the incident occurred on Saturday afternoon in Hollersbach near Salzburg, when Maria Stellini was out for a walk in the national park together with her father, gastroenterologist Mario Stellini, her mother and brother.
The Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed the tragedy and said the Maltese Embassy in Vienna was keeping in touch with the family and assisting them.
The girl was familiar with the area because the family are frequent visitors. She was reported in the media to have parted ways with her parents and brother but kept in touch via walkie-talkie.
However, at around 3.15pm, contact between the girl and her family was broken.
Ms Stellini and her son rushed ahead towards the chalet hotel Senningeralm and, when they did not find Maria there, filed a missing person report.
The police dispatched teams in search of the girl. Below the cable car station they located a blue umbrella which Maria had been carrying and the search along the river was reinforced.
The girl’s lifeless body was found in the middle of the riverbed about a kilometre away. All attempts to resuscitate her were in vain.
The police said it was likely that the girl was throwing stones into the stream and slipped. She was swept some 800 metres down the river. The family was rushed to hospital to be treated for shock.