A GRIEVING father yesterday relived the horror of the moment an underwater game ended in tragedy when his ten-year-old daughter drown-ed in a whirlpool bath.

Melissa Blagdon and her eight-year-old sister, Lauren, were enjoying a family day out at a leisure club in the United Arab Emirates - where their father, Gary, works - when the accident happened.

As Melissa swam to the bottom of the water, allowing a suction pump to pull at her hair, she became trapped and drowned.

Lauren and two other girls in the pool remained oblivious to her struggles.

The family have returned to stay with relatives in the region in the aftermath of the tragedy last Friday.

The family are believed to have relatives in the Darlington area, and Mr Blagdon's parents live in Sedgefield.

Yesterday, Mr Blagdon told an inquest in Darlington how the nightmare unfolded as he and his wife, Stephanie, relaxed on chairs 100m from the pool.

None of the girls realised Melissa had not resurfaced until it was too late.

Lauren then dived down and tried to free her sister and, alerted to the problem, Mr Blagdon also jumped in.

Twenty minutes of desperate efforts by a lifeguard failed to revive Melissa, and she was flown to a nearby hospital by helicopter.

There, staff tried for another 15 minutes to save her.

Mr Blagdon told South Durham and Darlington coroner Colin Penna how his daughters were very strong swimmers.

The family went to the club, at the Metropolitan Hotel in Dubai, every Friday.

Melissa, who was born in Hong Kong, was a "very good swimmer", he said.

While Lauren and the other two girls, who the sisters had just met, sat among the bubbles, Melissa began to play.

Mr Blagdon said: "She was diving under the water and felt the suction at the bottom catch her hair, and she thought it was some sort of game. She came up and said that to her sister.

"She did that a few times. Obviously, she went too close and the suction must have pulled her hair down.

"The other children didn't notice. They were looking at other things."

Eventually, one of the girls noticed Melissa missing and Lauren made the first attempt to free her.

"We think she had been down there for some considerable time and obviously was already dead."

Mr Blagdon continued: "I ran up to the pool, saw her and jumped in.

"I tried to lift her out and could not."

He added that the hotel had never had any such problems before in the ten to 12 years it had been there.

A death certificate from the ministry of health in the United Arab Emirates gave the cause of death as drowning asphyxiation, said Mr Penna.

Melissa's body has now been brought back to the region for burial.

Mr Penna said the law required an inquest hearing to be held here in such circumstances, although he said he was confident all inquiries had been properly carried out in Dubai.

Mr Blagdon declined to comment after the hearing