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Lifeguards pull a woman out of the water of the Baltic Sea during an exercise (symbol photo)
Photo: Jens Büttner / dpa
An exercise by water rescuers probably saved the life of a vacationer from Lower Saxony in the Baltic Sea in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The 54-year-old was taken out of the water by rescuers at Graal-Müritz on Saturday evening in stormy weather, as Andre Rieckhoff, head of the German Life-Saving Society (DLRG) said on Sunday.
The tourist from the Nienburg / Weser district had gone swimming and clung to a groyne head, where she could not get away because of strong currents.
"Because of the strong westerly wind up to about force six, bathing on the west beach had been banned for a long time and our members had actually already finished work," explained Rieckhoff.
But since the exercise had been arranged, one was around in the evening.
The rather exhausted and hypothermic woman came to a clinic.
But she wasn't the only one who had underestimated the currents in strong winds and ignored the bathing ban: "During the day we had to rescue three rather exhausted children from the groynes in the Baltic Sea."