A terrible tragedy has bereaved the beach of Narbonne, this Saturday, May 21. It was around 2:30 p.m. and under a blazing sun that walkers noticed that three young people seemed to be in difficulty in the waves. They are about 100 meters from the edge, when these passes immediately alert the rescuers.
Two dead including a minor
Nearly twenty-five firefighters were then mobilized. They manage to pull an adult boy out of the water, who is choking, as if he had violently drunk the cup. Then the Aude firefighters come out of the water a young man in his twenties in cardiopulmonary arrest. After twenty minutes of resuscitation attempts, he was declared dead by the emergency services.
Alerted by passers-by that a third youngster was also struggling in the water, the specialists of the Narbonne aquatic team set out to find him. More than an hour later, they locate his body, which is 2 meters deep. This Toulousain was 17 years old.
Warnings for strong currents the previous days
The only survivor has since been hospitalized in shock in Narbonne. According to witnesses on the spot, these are big waves and strong currents who precipitated these young Toulouse people off. The prefecture of Aude had also alerted, in recent days, to the risks of a “dangerous swimming” in the current circumstances. But the alert would only run until 8 p.m. Friday.
The Aude firefighters confirm that “even very good swimmers can drown in these circumstances”.