An 11-year-old girl was reported missing offshore, and a young woman drowned on Friday in two separate incidents on the beaches of Charente-Maritime and Landes, we learned this Saturday from the emergency services. In the afternoon, a group of children from a summer camp found themselves in difficulty in the water, due to the current, off the beach of
Meschers-sur-Gironde (Charente-Maritime), on the northern slope of the Gironde estuary, indicated the maritime prefecture of the Atlantic.
Nautical means, jet-ski, speedboats, semi-rigid, and aerial (helicopter) were engaged and three young people rescued: a young girl hospitalized for the onset of drowning but not serious, and the two others shocked, taken care of at the beach station, the same source said. An 11-year-old girl remained missing after several hours of searching, which was suspended in the early evening.
The effect of baïnes
In the Landes, it is a family of five who found themselves in difficulty, by bathing in a baïne, Friday evening around 9 p.m. on the beach of Labenne. Most managed to make their way back to shore on their own, but they sounded the alarm when they realized that a young girl, in her twenties, was missing. Here again, an important device was engaged, with two army helicopters, nautical means of firefighters, rescuers at sea. After more than three hours of research, the body of the victim was found on the beach of Ondres , a few kilometers further south.
Rescue and Maritime Prefecture of the Atlantic once again insisted this Saturday on the dangerousness of the currents on the Aquitaine coast, and in particular of the baïnes, these kinds of seawater basins that seem harmless at low tide, but whose currents so-called “tearing” can quickly lead offshore. Each summer, they take dozens of bathers, some of whom perish.
Some 700 accidental drownings, including 168 fatal, occurred in France between June and early August, according to Public Health France, a figure down (-22%) compared to the previous survey in 2018, and which can be explained by a weather not conducive to swimming this summer. But the strong heat forecast for the second part of August could increase the risk of drowning, warn the authors of the investigation.