Briton dies from Spanish fish bite

A BRITISH teenager, on holiday with his girlfriend, died yesterday after he was apparently bitten by a fish while snorkelling in Majorca.

Jonathan Wickings, 18, is thought to have been bitten, or stung, while swimming during a catamaran trip from Palma, the Majorcan capital.

He began foaming at the mouth and was taken by speedboat back to land with his distressed girlfriend by his side.

Staff from a German-run medical centre tried to revive him with heart massage but he died on the jetty at Cala Blava.

Phil Allan, from Aberdeen, who was on the boat with Mr Wickings and his girlfriend, said it was very distressing. "His girlfriend was on the jetty with him and, when the doctors stopped the massage, she let out a howling wail. It was awful."

He criticised the actions of the boat's crew, who went back out to sea with more passengers after the death, as "appalling". "There was no leadership at all, they didn't seem to know what to do," he said.

Mr Wickings, from Portsmouth, was on holiday with Sunset Holidays. The company arranged the trip but it was organised by a local firm, Suncat. Ken Donaldson, a spokesman, denied the boat's crew had acted incorrectly. He said: "They asked immediately if there were any doctors on board, and then headed straight for the nearest set-down point." Ambulance staff were waiting.

Humphrey Carter, a marine expert and journalist with the Majorca Daily Bulletin newspaper, said a fish known locally as a Spider Fish may have been to blame. Mr Carter said the fish's bite was poisonous, but was usually fatal only for children and the elderly.