how were 18 people rescued from the baïnes?

On amateur images, we can see the scene of the delicate rescue operation, Saturday August 20 in Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). A diver jumps from the police helicopter and manages to pull one of the bathers out of the raging ocean. With him, a jet-ski is busy repatriating as many people as possible. “I turned towards the beach, I saw that I was very far away and that I probably couldn’t come back because of the currents. I was very scared”says Paul Prétéché, a drowning survivor.

“It was extremely stressful. Immediately, we imagine the worst”, testifies the mother of Paul Prétéché, present on the beach. A total of 18 people were saved from drowning in an area that was still under surveillance. All escape unscathed, but many are shocked. The situation could have ended in tragedy, had it not been for the rapid intervention of the rescuers. An extremely rare operation, some of them had never even seen it. On the Aquitaine coast, five people have died, carried away by currents of baïnes since the beginning of the summer.