LIFE-SAVING equipment used on a Spanish beach to try and resuscitate a dad was woefully inadequate, an inquest heard today.

Carl Thompson, 36, from Leeds Old Road, Heckmondwike, died two days into a family holiday at Corralejo, last August on the island of Fuerteventura.

Mr Thompson, a lighting technician who kept himself fit, had gone for a quick dip to cool off before a sudden rip-tide swept him away.

Witnesses told the Bradford inquest that the first defibrillator used on him by panicked lifeguards on the council-run beach had a missing battery pack and that it took 50 minutes for a second defibrillator, which was also faulty, to arrive from the hotel where strong swimmer Mr Thompson and his family were staying.

Other parts of the life-guards' emergency kit were also missing or damaged. There was no suction equipment in their bag and a valve-bag which would have been used to 'bag' air into Mr Thompson had a hole in it.

The defibrillator pads had been dropped in the sand so would not stick on his chest and a bystander had to take off her dress to try and wipe the pads and Mr Thompson's chest clean.

There was also a delay in an ambulance arriving with a third defibrillator and a doctor because the Riu Oliva hotel was geographically remote.

Coroner Martin Fleming told Mr Thompson's family and partner Sally Barrett he would be writing to the authorities in Corralejo asking them to learn lessons from the inadequate equipment and lack of lifeguard training that had hampered life-saving attempts. He said he would also ask for a response.

The inquest heard how the popular public beach, which stretches for about 11km, operates a flag warning system but only had one defibrillator in case of emergencies despite other deaths there in the past.

A yellow flag signalling it was safe to paddle had been flying when the Thompson family were overwhelmed. Ms Barrett managed to get herself to shore but lifeguards rescued her 16-year-old brother from the treacherous waves before reaching Mr Thompson.

British nurse Margaret Merryweather, who helped at the scene along with a German doctor, said the lifeguards who also attempted chest compressions did not know what they were doing with the defibrillator equipment, but it was not working anyway.

Summing up that Mr Thompson died from drowning, Mr Fleming said: "The family needed reassurances that everything was done that could be done to save him but because of the failure of equipment that's not something they can have. He was let down by the woefully inadequate life-saving equipment and the lack of lifeguard training."

Mr Fleming also asked Thomson Holidays to consider putting beach warnings in parts of its brochures that holidaymakers read and not at the back in a general A-Z guide.