9-year-old girl drowns after starting swimming lessons

A nine-year-old girl drowned in a swimming pool just days after having swimming lessons.

Ava Rose McCourt was being watched by her father’s girlfriend, Christina Bryant, while swimming and using a pool float at Clinton Mobile Home Resort in Tiffin, Ohio, just moments before she disappeared from view.

Christina told police she turned away for a brief moment and when she looked back, the youngster had gone and a search was launched.

She was then found “lying on the bottom” of the deep end of the pool by another child, according to police.

Bystanders pulled her out of the water and began to perform CPR on her. She was later taken to Mercy Tiffin Hospital, where she was pronounced de@d.

Witnesses told police they did not notice any splashing or signs of drowning.

Ava has been described as good student who loved to dance and sing. She was eagerly awaiting her 10th birthday to be able to make her first video on YouTube, tributes have said.

Ava’s dad, Jesse McCourt, was fishing at a trailer park nearby at the time that she drowned.

Her parents added that she was taking received swimming lessons just days before the tragic incident on June 28