AN INQUEST into the death of a 15-year-old girl who drowned at the Cotswold Water Park has heard of the moment her body was found by fellow swimmers.

Kajil Devi, who could not swim but was confident in the water, had been playing with her cousins using an inflatable boat. The group had been briefly left alone after an older relative went to get some food.

One of her cousins, a 13-year-old boy who cannot be named by order of the coroner, told the inquest after older cousin Akshay Kumar, 18, had left they played a game where one was pushed out on the boat and then pulled back with a rope by the others.

But Kajil, of South Road, Feltham, Middlesex, and a female cousin could not catch the rope when he was in the boat and he drifted out, he said.

The girls tried to reach the rope and that was when Kajil seemed to slip under the water.

He said this happened three times, but the third time when the younger cousin grabbed the rope, Kajil went under and all he could see was her hair.

The teenager’s body was pulled from the water 10 minutes later by 26-year-old Nathan Stroud, of Gloucester.

Mr Stroud told the inquest his friend, Pierre, had stumbled on something under water.

“I searched for a minute or two,” he told Gloucestershire's assistant deputy coroner Tom Osborne. “I pulled up a purple T-shirt and saw it was a girl.”

He said that there was no sign of life and he tried to get her to the shore. Kajil was given CPR by a lifeguard and taken to hospital where she was certified dead the following day.

Mr Osborne commended the actions of Mr Stroud, along with lifeguard Annabel Clark and nurse Alison Bunce, who all did their utmost to help the girl.

Lifeguard Leo Hayward, of Swindon was employed by the park but was off duty.

He said the lifeguards were responsible for a zone of the beach and the water, but on the day of the incident only two had been on duty, although the park was almost at its full capacity.

But as far as he knew, the water park did not have a recognised ratio for lifeguards.

He told the coroner he had raised the problem with the manager before the accident, saying more lifeguards were needed.