Teenager dies after fall from flats block

Grace Ford, 17, lost her fight for life in hospital on Thursday, 12 days after her fall in the resort of Magaluf.

The student, from Greenhalgh, near Kirkham, Lancashire, had just completed her A-levels and was holidaying with schoolfriends when the accident happened.

Her parents, Christopher and Suzanne Ford, were at her bedside when she died.

Grace, a keen horse-rider, suffered injuries to her feet, legs, pelvis, ribs and arm along with internal bleeding in the accident on July 17.

Police said she was found covered in blood after she fell on to a cement floor from a window at the Torrenova Playa hotel where she was staying.

She was taken to the Son Dureta hospital in the capital, Palma, where her parents kept a vigil. Her condition had started to improve but she then caught an infection from which she did not recover, family friend Steve Hall said.

He said: "After 48 hours of fighting an infection, that really took its toll on her.

"She was the most wonderful girl that we have lost. Everyone is going to miss her terribly.

"She has fought like a tiger, she has fought it as hard as anyone could."

An 18-year-old British man was arrested in Majorca on suspicion of failing to help in connection with the incident.

The man was later allowed to return home to the United Kingdom after a court appearance in Majorca.

Grace had just completed her A-levels at the 5,332-a-term Kirkham Grammar School, near Preston.

She sat exams in biology, psychology and religious studies and hoped to go to Leeds University to read psychology.

Headmaster Douglas Walker said the school was "deeply saddened" to hear of her death.

He said: "The school community is devastated to hear this tragic news and we can only express our profound sorrow that Grace has lost her fight for life after suffering terrible injuries."

The Foreign Office said it was providing consular assistance to the family.

Meanwhile a British schoolgirl has died in a white water rafting tragedy on holiday in Turkey.

The nine-year-old, named locally as Cerys Potter, of Llancarfan, Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales, died on Wednesday.

She was white water rafting on Lake Koygeyiz, close to the Dalyan region in southern Turkey, when tragedy struck.

Staff, pupils and parents at the small Llancarfan Primary School in the village of Llancarfan were said to be "devastated" by the tragedy.