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Video length: 2 min
Baïnes: alert on Atlantic beaches
The beaches on the Atlantic coast are particularly dangerous, due to strong currents causing rip currents.
(France 2)
The beaches on the Atlantic coast are particularly dangerous, due to strong currents causing rip currents.
It’s a high-risk day. Lifeguards intervene as soon as swimmers venture into a rip current. The risk is once again at its highest on the beaches of Gironde, Landes, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Charente-Maritime. Rip currents are basins located between the coast and the sandbanks that, at high tide, flow through powerful currents. They can be easily seen at low tide, but once covered, intense and invisible currents can form there.
Some days, they can carry swimmers out to sea. They are called rip currents. This is what happened to holidaymakers who managed to escape. Among the advice given by lifeguards: swim in supervised swimming areas, do not swim if you feel any physical discomfort and do not overestimate your swimming level.
