A seven-year-old was taken to hospital after suffering three nasty bite wounds to his foot around 5.30pm yesterday at El Pinet beach in Elche. Half an hour later a 10-year-old child was hurt by a creature believed to be the same fish on the same beach half an hour’s drive south of Alicante. Local police and lifeguards decided to close the beach and two nearby – La Marina and El Rebollo from about 6.30pm onwards.
Elche Town Hall was due to decide early this morning whether to remove the red flag and allow tourists and locals back into the water after tests to see if the bites contained poison.
The nationalities of the two children who needed medical treatment has not been revealed.
El Pinet is a beach in the south of the municipality of Elche on an impressive strip of dunes.
It is just over a mile long and part of the beach is occupied with villas and restaurants.
In June three beaches were closed temporarily in the Costa Blanca holiday resort of Benidorm after seven people were stung by Portuguese Men O’War and two of the jellyfish-like creatures were spotted.
The first was found at Mal Pas beach, a little cove between the town’s main beaches, and the second was found at the popular Levante beach.
The stings the bathers suffered were said to have been “minor”, although five of the seven people were taken to hospital. It is not known if any were British or Irish.
Earlier that month a woman was left with excruciating marks all over her body after being stung by one of the creatures.
Naomi Mateos, 22, was swimming at Puntas de Calnegre beach in Lorca, when she became ‘paralysed’ by a sharp sting.
She said after a two-day stay in hospital: “I felt as if fire or acid was being injected into my body.”