Luiza Paun, a nine-year-old known as Bia, drowned in the River Thames at Gravesend, Kent, on May 30 last year. Her body was pulled from the water at around 11:35 am the day after she fell in, and a post-mortem report recorded her cause of death as drowning. Coroner Venessa Holt later gave a conclusion of death by accident for Luiza Paun.
Rescue attempts began immediately after Luiza Paun fell into the river while playing on a jetty. A boy jumped into the River Thames in an attempt to save her, and her uncle, George Karnovski, also entered the river to try to rescue her. Karnovski reported that Luiza Paun was screaming as she struggled against the current. He took about two minutes to push through currents to reach the children, who were 20 meters away. By the time he reached where he had seen Luiza Paun and the other child, he could only see the boy floating on his back and no sign of her. RNLI rescued George Karnovski and the boy from the water.
Emergency services including HM Coastguard, RNLI, and police searched for Luiza Paun, continuing into the following day. CCTV captured Luiza Paun playing with another child on Gravesend Promenade's Royal Terrace Pier before the incident.
In a separate incident in Brazil, an 18-year-old girl named Thaynara Lima da Silva died after falling into Lake Serra da Mesa in Niquelandia during a fishing trip. Thaynara Lima da Silva could not swim and was not wearing a life jacket when she fell into the water and drowned. Her body was found on the afternoon of April 6, about 400 meters from shore in water around 18 meters deep.
The incident happened around 6 pm on April 4 after the boat reportedly struck a branch and sped out of control before overturning. Firefighters said two or three people were rescued, but Thaynara Lima da Silva went under and could not be found initially. Officials said the boat did not immediately overturn; after striking the branch, it ended up unmanned and continued moving and circling before eventually overturning.
In France, an 8-year-old girl drowned in Palluau-sur-Indre in the Indre department on March 8 after her canoe capsized on the Indre river. The girl and her mother were canoeing when their canoe suddenly capsized at the location called La Motte. The canoe was carried by the current before getting stuck against an open dam gate.
Emergency services and gendarmes were alerted in the early evening; firefighters located and rescued the mother, but the 8-year-old girl was not rescued in time and was not found initially. About fifteen gendarmes and thirty firefighters were involved in search operations. An investigation has been opened to clarify the circumstances of the incident.
In Australia, a seven-year-old girl was pulled from the water at Colleges Crossing Recreational Reserve in Chuwar, southwest of Brisbane, on Saturday afternoon and could not be saved. The young girl vanished while swimming, sparking a frantic search. Emergency crews were called just before 5 pm, with police, POLAIR, and specialist dive units searching for hours. At 10:24 pm, the girl was retrieved from the water but could not be saved. A primary school-aged boy was also taken to Ipswich Hospital in stable condition after being pulled from the water.