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Swimmer off Dover in Kent (symbolic image)
Photo: Gary Yeowell / Getty Images
Unaccompanied, a man wanted to cross the 43-kilometer-wide strait between Dover in England and Calais in France.
But the ambitious amateur athlete did not get very far: after only 500 meters he was "hypothermic and exhausted, but otherwise healthy" pulled into a lifeboat off the coast of Kent.
An acquaintance of the swimmer had alarmed the coast guard on Monday afternoon and reported about the reckless undertaking.
Sea rescuers then spent more than eight hours looking for the missing person with a helicopter, among other things.
At around 8 p.m. he was spotted by a passing ship.
The route in the English Channel is considered particularly dangerous because it is used by many large ships.
The passage is currently being passed by more migrants than ever before: They are trying to cross the strait from France to Great Britain in small rubber dinghies.
Here, too, there are always emergencies.
The current case has no relation to migrants, it said.
Icon: The mirror
ala / dpa
