A SECOND York swimming pool has shut during the school summer holidays, leaving the city with only two remaining pools.

The Waterworld pool, at Monks Cross, was closed yesterday after a workman carrying out maintenance work accidentally dropped a motor on water pipes between the site's plant room and the main pool.

As a result, the plant room was flooded and the site was closed at about 4pm.

The rising water in the plant room triggered an alarm and the fire brigade arrived immediately to assess the damage.

The site was evacuated as a precautionary measure and the fire crews from York and Huntington started to pump water out of the plant room and continued working throughout the evening. This is the second of York's swimming pools to be put out of action during the busy summer holiday period.

In June, about 30 swimmers turned out for the last swim at the Barbican Centre before the pool there closed for good, despite a long-running campaign to keep it open.

The rest of the centre is due to close in the autumn when the whole site will be redeveloped.

Technical managers at Cannons Health and Fitness Ltd which manages and operates Waterworld, on behalf of City of York Council, are were assessing the situation so that repair work can start immediately.

Waterworld general manager, Paul Danby, said: "Cannons apologises for any inconvenience caused to visitors and is currently concentrating on making all necessary repairs so that the site can reopen as soon as possible.

"As soon as loss assessors have visited the site, Cannons will then be in a position to advise customers of the anticipated re-opening date.

"The health and safety of our customers is our number one priority and therefore the leisure pool will remain closed until all repairs are complete."

In the meantime, the health and fitness facilities will be open as normal.

York's two remaining swimming baths are Edmund Wilson swimming pool, in Thanet Road, Acomb, and Yearsley Swimming Pool on Haxby Road.

Updated: 10:32 Thursday, August 05, 2004