Despite the risks they took, the two rescuers were unable to cope with the flow of the Marne.
This Saturday at the very end of the morning, at the lock between Île Sainte-Catherine de Créteil and the quai de la Pie de Saint-Maur, two residents saw an elderly woman fall into the Marne from the bridge.
The young couple in their thirties, who live in rue des Peupliers, barely 50 m from the Créteil bridge, initially had the good reflex to call the fire brigade.
Then the two residents hasten to get into their boat and navigate to come to the aid of the elderly woman.
But while they arrived at its height and probably because of the impressive current just before the Créteil dam, they could not escape the capsizing of their boat.
The two rescuers end up in their turn in the icy water of the Marne.
About fifty firefighters were mobilized for this intervention.
The man manages with difficulty to swim back to shore.
The young woman struggles with the current when the firefighters arrive on the quay.
It is thanks to the sending of a buoy by the divers that she can find dry land.
"The young woman who intervened suffers from hypothermia and was taken to hospital," said the Paris fire brigade.
But his days are not in danger.
Both are shocked that they could not save the victim and they were very scared.
"
The woman has still not been found
“I am relieved that they are alive.
I saw the empty boat go by and I feared the worst, says a local resident, also on the Ile Sainte-Catherine side in Créteil.
At this place, with the lock, the current is really impressive.
I was just watching the Marne, which is in flood.
"
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It is not yet known whether the victim, who was over 70 according to witnesses, threw himself into the water on purpose.
"The young couple saw him fall from the bridge and listened only to his courage to try to save her," relates a firefighter.
The conditions on the Marne were nevertheless dire!
"
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Despite two hours of searching, the woman, who sank sharply after her rescuers capsized, has still not been found.
About fifty firefighters were mobilized, including the nautical section and a cynotechnical team.
The dangerous conditions of the intervention prompted the firefighters to stop the search early in the afternoon.
