A woman and a young girl have died of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning during a boating holiday in the Lake District.
A man who was also on the vessel is seriously ill in hospital, Cumbria Police said.
The alarm was raised at around 4pm yesterday when police and an ambulance were called to a private boat on Windermere in the Lake District.
The 36-year-old woman and 10-year-old girl, both from the Leyland area of Lancashire, were treated at the scene and then airlifted to Royal Lancaster Infirmary, where they both died. The man is still receiving treatment at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.
A Cumbria Police spokeswoman said officers were called to reports that three people on a private boat on Windermere were having serious breathing difficulties.
She said: “Police are currently investigating the circumstances of this tragic incident and trying to establish the full facts about what has happened. The coroner has been informed.”
The incident, at a jetty near Bowness, was witnessed by businessman and television personality Duncan Bannatyne who remarked on the police and ambulance activity to his followers on Twitter.
The Dragons’ Den star later posted a photograph of the scene, saying: “Tragic accident over there I am afraid.”
Other eyewitnesses reported seeing firefighters entering the boat wearing breathing masks.
Tony Rothwell, who runs the Bowness Bay marina, told the Daily Telegraph that he was told by lake wardens that the boat had been fitted with a faulty generator.
The generator was connected to a fan heater, which is thought to have been turned on. Temperatures around the Lake District remained only just above freezing throughout the day.
Mr Rothwell said: “It was an amateur job. The boat had been fitted with a generator and the exhaust has leaked. It had been a very cold day and the fan heater was connected to the generator. It is a terrible tragedy.”
Police said they were as yet unable to confirm reports that the deaths were a direct result of carbon monoxide poisoning.
PA