A 66-year-old British woman has died in Benidorm following a parasailing accident during a yellow storm alert.
Another Briton, believed to be a 47-year-old man, was also injured, Spain’s Civil Guard said.
At 6.50pm on Monday, a boat pulling the woman was caught in a strong gust of wind.
This caused the lines securing the parachute to break.
The woman, a British tourist, fell from a significant height and suffered a cardiac arrest.
Emergency services found her severely injured and without a heartbeat.
Paramedics were able to restore her pulse after several minutes of resuscitation.
She was then rushed to Villajoyosa Hospital and sedated, but eventually succumbed to her injuries and died.
The man was found by emergency workers conscious and able to walk.
He suffered injuries believed to be rib fractures, according to initial investigations.
Footage of the accident shows a multi-coloured parachute parasailing under overcast skies before veering into some rocks.
On social media, commentators voiced their concern, warning that the weather conditions were “not the most ideal”.
One witness, 40-year-old Kerriann Blagden from Doncaster, detailed the horror crash which she saw from her balcony.
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“We were looking out to sea when it happened. The weather just changed all of a sudden and took the parachute off,” she told The Sun.
“They then dropped to the sea and the wind caught the parachute again and was dragging them across the sea.”
It remains unclear if the boat was allowed to go out to sea at the time it did because of the yellow alert in force.
An alert like that warns of possible wind gusts and violent waves, but is not necessarily a ban on going out to sea.
Early investigations will determine what weather conditions were recorded at the time and if a vessel should have been allowed to parasail.
Investigators will decide if weather was the direct cause of the parachute lines breaking.
A spokesman for the Spanish Civil Guard said: “At 6.50pm on Monday we received an alert about a parasailing accident that occurred in the sea off Benidorm.
“Two British nationals, a 47-year-old man and a 66-year-old woman, were injured and taken to Villajoyosa Hospital.
“The woman’s death was subsequently confirmed.
“The Guardia Civil has carried out the initial steps to clarify the circumstances of the incident, and the investigation is ongoing.”
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