Family of girl who died at water park told cause of her death was drowning

Kyra Hill was attending a birthday party at Liquid Leisure near Windsor on August 6 last year when she got into trouble in a designated swimming area.

An inquest has opened into the death of Kyra Hill (Family handout/PA) (PA Media)

The family of an 11-year-old girl who died at a water park have been told at an inquest opening that the cause of her death was drowning.

Kyra Hill was attending a birthday party at Liquid Leisure near Windsor on August 6 last year when she got into trouble in a designated swimming area.

Emergency services were called at 3.55pm and Kyra was found just after 5.10pm and taken to Wexham Park Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Senior coroner Heidi Connor told Kyra’s family that a post-mortem examination gave the cause of her death as drowning.

She offered her “utterly heartfelt condolences at the loss of Kyra”, during a hearing at Berkshire Coroner’s Court on Tuesday.

The coroner told the family that “we must stand back and allow other investigations to be carried out first”.

Kyra’s father, Leonard Hill, and mother, Heather Parker, attended the opening of the inquest and Mr Hill asked the coroner whether the cause of Kyra’s death was final and whether his daughter had died at the hospital.

The family were also told they will be able to share more about Kyra’s life outside the “very difficult, traumatic evidence” during the inquest into her death.

Mr Hill previously likened footage of the tragedy to a “horror movie” in an interview with the PA news agency.

He said: “I’ve replayed the CCTV in my mind every day, every night. It’s like watching a horror movie. I replay my child on a hospital bed every day, every night.

“I replay my child in the morgue, and touching her cold freezing stiff body with fluids leaking from her nose, every day and every night.”

Mr Hill also previously told PA that Kyra had not been playing on inflatables and was swimming in the area designated for swimming.