Eleven-year-old Letizia Trudu died when she was struck by the propellers of a motor yacht while swimming from the boat off the southern coast of Sardinia on Thursday, police said.
The accident occurred at Santa Margherita di Pula, a popular beach area on the south coast of Sardinia, police said.
A friend of the girl's family, Maurizio Loi, who was allegedly at the boat's helm at time of the tragedy, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.
Emergency crews tried to save the girl but the propellers had cut vital organs, said police, adding that the child and her parents are Sardinians.
The girl and her father, both Sardinian had dived into the sea from the yacht and were about to swim to the beach some 50 metres away.
