A COUPLE were hours into their luxurious holiday on the Maldives when they rescued a boy from drowning.

Michelle Barker and fiancé Steve Knott hadn't even unpacked when they opted to relax by the pool at the resort on the island of Medhufushi.

But soon afterwards, Michelle, 46, noticed that a small boy who had been diving under the water, did not come to the surface.

Michelle said: “We were on the sun loungers around the pool. He had got in the pool, and had a mask over his eyes. He kept swimming underwater.

“I said to Steve, 'that boy has been holding his breath for a long time'.

“We sprung into action and did our best. We jumped in, got him out and he was not breathing.

“We performed CPR and after several minutes he started breathing.”

She added: “At one point I thought he was dead.”

Michelle, who runs a domestic cleaning firm, estimated the seven-year-old boy had been under the water for about two minutes and he had “sunk to the bottom”.

The pool was about two metres deep.

The only first aid training engineer Steve has completed is a basic work-based qualification, while Michelle has done none.

The couple, from Moor Road in Langham, and staff stayed with the boy but they did not know where his parents were and efforts were made to try to locate them.

A boat was sent for to take the boy to the nearest hospital, three hours away.

Eventually the boy’s parents were located and it turned out they had been sleeping in their room and their son had snuck out to go for a swim.

Michelle, who has never done any first aid training said once at the hospital, the boy - called Tomas - was put into a coma for six hours.

“After spending two nights in hospital, he fully recovered.”

After the drama it emerged the boy and his parents had just arrived at the resort from Beijing.

Michelle, a mum-of-two, said: “We had a celebration evening with them but were translating through our I-phones.”

She added: “We have now been ‘adopted’ as his second mother and father and they have invited us to see them in Beijing.

“Thank goodness it had the right result. I think it hits you straight away. We have been in tears every day we were on holiday – we felt despair, elation and relief.

“We are so relieved we have made such a difference to his family.”