A four-year-old British boy has drowned at a holiday villa on Spain's Costa del Sol, it has been confirmed.

The child was at the house in a gated community in the resort of Mijas when emergency services were called.

According to the local authority, there were 20 people at the property, which is on a golfing complex, when the boy drowned.

One local newspaper, Diario Sur, reported that the boy's parents were having dinner with friends while the child played with older children at the back of the property.

The boy is reported to have fallen into the villa's swimming pool while running around it with older children.

The newspaper said a 15-year-old boy raised the alarm and a doctor, who was a guest at the dinner, attempted to resuscitate the boy.

Paramedics then tried for more than half an hour to revive him before he was pronounced dead.

A post-mortem examination will be carried out later on Monday in Malaga.

The boy's death comes nearly a year after a Scottish boy drowned in a pool in the same village.

Two-year-old Theo Lamb was reported to have fallen into a neighbour's pool next to his family's property on August 18th last year.