The British dad who drowned alongside two of his children at Spain’s Costa del Sol has been identified as a devout Christian pastor, according to reports.
Gabriel Diya, 52, and his son Praise-Emmanuel Diya, 16, were named as the family members who died trying to save his daughter, 9-year-old Comfort Diya, after she became trapped in a resort pool on Christmas Eve, according to The Telegraph.
The family is based in London, but the teenage boy was traveling on a U.S. passport, the paper said.
Dad Diya, originally from Ile-Ife, Nigeria, was a pastor at Open Heavens in southeast London, part of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, a Nigeria-based network of religious groups.
The group offered “prayers” as it confirmed the news with “heavy hearts” in a Facebook tribute. It added that Diya’s wife, Olubunmi — who witnesses said was desperately praying as CPR was administered to her husband and kids — is also an assistant pastor.
Diya and his teenage son are believed to have died after trying to save Comfort when she became trapped underwater at the Club La Costa World in Las Lagunas de Mijas near Málaga.
Police later found her swimming cap inside the pool’s pump system – suggesting the three family members may have been sucked to their deaths, according to reports.
Post-mortem exams ruled out poisoning in the water, and another family member — a 12-year-old girl — showed no symptoms of being harmed by chemicals despite also being in the pool, The Telegraph reported.