Four-year-old dies after falling from fifth-floor balcony in Spanish resort; police say death accidental
Girl, reportedly a sleepwalker, fell from an apartment balcony in Calpe on Sept. 7 and died five days later in hospital; town declares three days of mourning
A four-year-old girl who fell from a fifth-floor balcony at an apartment block in the Spanish resort town of Calpe on Sept. 7 died five days later at Alicante's General Hospital, police and local officials said.
Authorities said the girl was taken first to a local health centre and then transferred to the hospital in the Costa Blanca capital in critical condition. Investigators who probed the incident have concluded the death was accidental, and local reports said the child had a history of sleepwalking.
Police said the fall occurred at about 5 a.m. on Sept. 7. Family members told investigators that neither parent was at the property at the time and that a 15-year-old sister had been left in charge of the four-year-old and a one-year-old brother. According to reports, the child climbed over a balcony railing, lost her balance and fell, striking a car parked below before landing on the ground.
A court in Denia, near Calpe, coordinated the investigation carried out by local police, who said there were no indications of foul play. News of the girl's death only emerged publicly on Sept. 16, after officials confirmed the findings of the inquiry.
The council in Calpe announced three days of official mourning following the two recent accidents in the town. "After the recent deaths of a baby and a four-year-old girl in tragic accidents, we are declaring a period of official mourning as a show of our respect and condolences," a municipal spokesman said, adding that flags at municipal buildings would fly at half-mast.
The council's decision followed a separate tragedy in the same resort reported to have occurred the day before the girl's fall. Local authorities said a 20-day-old infant was killed when an out-of-control car — believed to have suffered a handbrake failure while parked on a steep hill — struck the baby's pram. The newborn's 37-year-old mother, who was pushing the pram at the time, was left critically injured and remained in an intensive care ward. The incident reportedly occurred in front of the mother's husband and the couple's other child, aged four.
Officials and investigators in the Costa Blanca region have not released the identities of the children involved, citing privacy concerns and the ongoing nature of related inquiries. Authorities have provided limited public detail beyond confirming the sequence of events and the outcomes of the hospital treatments.
Previous falls from hotel or apartment balconies in Spain have been reported in the media and have sometimes been linked to sleepwalking. In July 2020, a British tourist in Ibiza was seriously injured after allegedly sleepwalking off a third-floor hotel balcony. In 2015, an inquest in the United Kingdom recorded an accidental death after a woman who had a known tendency to sleepwalk fell from a hotel balcony.
Local officials in Calpe said support services were being made available to the families affected and to residents following the twin incidents. Police have described the outcome in the girl's case as accidental and said their inquiry had been concluded, with coordination from the regional court handling procedural aspects of the investigation.