Toddler in chemical drink blunder taken off critical list

THE two-year-old British girl given chemical detergent in her orange juice at a hotel in Cyprus is off the critical list, the hospital treating her said today.

Annabel Rhodes is breathing without the help of a ventilator and is fully conscious. A hospital spokesman said: "She is much, much better."

Her millionaire businessman father Mark ordered the drink for his daughter from a hotel bar and asked for it to be diluted with water.

Police said a 43-year-old barman at the Curium Palace Hotel in Limassol accidentally used cleaning fluid instead. The toddler suffered serious injuries to her throat and stomach.

Detectives believe the clear cleaning fluid was kept in a plastic bottle and then mistaken for water by the barman.

A spokesman for the Archbishop Makarios Hospital in Nicosia said today: "She came off the ventilator at 2pm yesterday. She is receiving intravenous fluids. She is fully conscious."

The youngster is still unable to speak because of her injuries, he added.

Mr Rhodes, 55, from London, has been at his daughter's bedside since she was injured on Saturday afternoon. Police on the island have not ruled out arrests over the incident.