DOZENS of families were left looking at an empty Bournemouth swimming pool after a fault contaminated the water.

They were in the cafe at the council-owned Littledown Centre yesterday until the water was cleared up in the early afternoon.

The pool is this weekend due to host the Bournemouth April Open swimming contest.

Paul Alcock, 43, visiting from Bedfordshire, said: “The staff said it was like silt – you could see it on the bottom of the pool.

“They were trying to hoover it up.”

A spokesman for BH Live, which manages the centre said: “We were replacing a chlorofier and we disturbed dissolvable solids and they entered the waterflow system. The solids built up from the water during the cleaning.

“There’s nothing harmful about them but they don’t look pleasing. We closed the pool until about 2pm.”