"I will just reiterate to the community to exercise due care"
Family and friends of two men who tragically drowned on the Gold Coast have paid their respects.
Sunny Randhawa, of Melbourne, drove his wife, two children and parents to Queensland for the Easter break.
They were staying at the Top of the Mark holiday apartments in Surfers Paradise.
But on the night of March 31, 2024, Sunny’s toddler daughter slipped into the hotel pool’s deep end.
CCTV footage has revealed how the tragedy unfolded in a matter of minutes.
The girl and her mother were playing in the shallow end of the pool when the young child lost her balance and drifted into deep water.
The girl’s mother rushed to save her but ran into difficulty herself, prompting Sunny and his father Gurjinder Singh to jump into the water to rescue them.
However, the pair got into trouble themselves.
The mother and child made it to safety.
The girl’s elder sister had been standing on the pool’s edge at the time. She tried to use a towel to pull the men out of the water as they struggled to stay afloat.
Sadly, the rescue efforts could not save the two men.
Emergency services arrived at the scene within minutes to find the pair unconscious at the rooftop pool.
Despite the efforts of paramedics, the men went into cardiac arrest and were declared dead at the scene.
Queensland Ambulance Service’s Mitchell Ware said bystanders and an off-duty doctor tried desperately to revive the men.
He said: “It’s an extremely emotional scene, obviously anyone can understand to lose one family member but to lose two family members.
“I will just reiterate to the community to exercise due care, especially if you’re not a strong swimmer, and especially if there’s young children around, that you are really careful because we know that children and even adults can drown in a matter of seconds.”
Relatives said Sunny was a kind-hearted family man while his father was retired and “full of life”.
Family friend Nav Malhi said the tragedy had deeply impacted Victoria’s Indian community.
He said: “(Sunny) was a really great guy.
“It is really sad, everyone is pretty sad in the community. Horrible news.”
According to police, the men drowned because they did not know how to swim.
Nav said it was that Indian families learned to swim if they were planning to move to or visit Australia.
He said: “Where we are coming from, the north part of India, there’s no ocean. People really hardly know how to swim.
“I would recommend everyone just to go and learn swimming as Australia is all ocean.”
Sunny’s wife and mother have returned to Melbourne and are now planning a funeral for their two loved ones.
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