A 19-year-old has drowned in a swimming pool after taking part in a breath-holding challenge with a friend.
Leonardo Cortese had travelled to stay for a few days with a friend whose family owns a home in Villaverla, Italy.
On Monday (3 August), the pair decided to spend the day at the Blueplanet 4.0 swimming pool in Montecchio Precalcino in the northern province of Vicenza.
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At around 5pm, they began repeatedly diving underwater, challenging each other to see who could hold their breath the longest.
At one point, Leonardo failed to resurface.
His friend initially believed he was simply continuing to hold his breath, but as the seconds passed he realised something was wrong and raised the alarm.
Lifeguards and other visitors pulled Leonardo from the water and immediately began CPR.
An ambulance and an air ambulance soon arrived, with doctors and paramedics finding the teenager already in cardiac arrest.
He was intubated and rescuers spent a prolonged period trying to revive him behind two sun loungers that had been positioned as a screen.
Despite their efforts, he could not be saved and was pronounced dead beside the pool, as reported by Need To Know.
Three people believed to be the owners of the swimming pool were placed under investigation yesterday (4 August) as a procedural step to allow them to appoint their own forensic experts ahead of the post-mortem examination.
The leading theory is that Leonardo drowned after pushing himself beyond his physical limits.
Investigators are trying to establish whether he lost consciousness due to a lack of oxygen while holding his breath or whether he suffered a medical emergency before sinking to the bottom of the pool.
Leonardo was originally from Rovereto in northern Italy but lived in Trento, a 30-minute drive away.
He had graduated from high school only a few weeks earlier and was planning to continue his studies after the summer.
After being informed of his death, his parents travelled to the province of Vicenza, where they will remain until the investigation is completed and prosecutors authorise the release of his body.
Alberto Meroni, Leonardo’s mathematics and physics teacher at his high school in Trento, told local media: “He was a positive young man, always smiling, and someone who helped bring the class together.”
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