Nine-year-old girl drowns after her hair gets caught in pool drain at grandmother’s birthday party

Mariana’s family tried to rescue her but she was not breathing when she was pulled out of the water

Representative image: Mariana dos Anjos Faria was in the swimming pool at a resort celebrating her grandmother’s 75th birthday (Charlotte Hindle)

A nine-year-old girl in Brazil died after her hair got caught in a swimming pool drain at her grandmother’s birthday party last week.

The incident took place on 12 February, when Mariana dos Anjos Faria was at a resort in west central Brazil with her family.

The family, reportedly from Aquidauana municipality, had gone to the resort in Dois Irmaos do Buriti municipality in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, to celebrate the girl’s grandmother’s 75th birthday, reported the Mirror.

Mariana was swimming in the resort pool when her hair was sucked into the drain. Her family tried to rescue her but she was not breathing when she was pulled out of the water. Her hair was still stuck to the pool drain.

Mariana’s father, who has not been identified, had tried to resuscitate her, reports said. However, she was later declared dead at a local hospital.

Details including how long the girl got stuck, whether she was being supervised or if anyone was witness to the incident have not been released.

In a social media post, her school expressed its condolences.

“It is with immense pain in our hearts that we receive the news that our dear student Mariana dos Anjos Faria, from the fifth year, has gone to heaven,” the school wrote, according to the New York Post.

Last November, Laise Pegorini Franzen, a 10-year-old in Brazil, died in a similar way after her hair got caught in a swimming pool drain.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends that children should not be left unattended in swimming pools and should be kept away from drains, pipes and other openings. It also recommends that swimming pools should have anti-entrapment drain covers as children’s hair and limbs can get sucked into open pool drains.