Mother goes missing after daughter falls from Majorcan hotel balcony

Police in Majorca were searching last night for the mother of a British girl who fell from a hotel balcony.

Gianna Cooper, seven, is seriously ill in hospital after the fall from the fifth floor of the Hotel Samoa in Calas de Majorca. Her mother, Sara, has not been seen since the incident at 7.30am on Monday.

Police are searching the surrounding beaches and mountains and monitoring the airport and ports.

Gianna had been on a half-term break with her mother, her father Ian and two of her three brothers, police said. She was being kept in intensive care yesterday at Hospital Universitario Son Dureta in the island's capital, Palma. Her father and brothers were at her side.

Gianna suffered a broken jaw bone, fluid and blood in her lungs, a damaged liver and gall bladder in the fall.

A spokesman for the hospital said that she was transferred yesterday afternoon from a hospital in Manacor where she underwent surgery. Her condition was described as "serious but stable".

A police spokeswoman said: "We do not know where the mother is. There are witnesses who are speaking with police and staff at the hotel."

He added: "We are looking for the mother but at this stage we do not want to speculate as to whether she was involved."

Police said the investigation would be "objective", and would not be based on speculation.

Neighbours in Foxton, Cambridgeshire, said the Coopers had four children, Stephen, James, Jonathan and Gianna.

One neighbour, who lives next door to the Coopers' detached home in a quiet cul-de-sac, said: "The family has been here for about four years. Ian works for a pharmaceutical company. They are a lovely family.

"All we know is that they had gone on holiday. It's terrible what has happened."

Another added: "We're all hoping that Gianna will pull through. She's a lovely little girl."

Humphrey Carter, a journalist with the Majorca Daily Bulletin, said that Gianna appeared to have fallen about 10 metres (around 30ft) at the hotel on the east coast of the island.