An eleven-year-old girl was reported missing off the coast, and a young woman drowned on Friday in two separate incidents on the beaches of Charente-Maritime and the Landes, we learned from the emergency services on Saturday.
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, according to the Maritime Prefecture of the Atlantic.
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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 post.
An 11-year-old girl remained missing after several hours of searching, which was suspended in the early evening.
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 of them 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.
Very dangerous currents on the Aquitaine coast
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 on Saturday on the dangerousness of the currents on the Aquitaine coast, and in particular of the baïnes, these kinds of seawater basins seemingly harmless at low tide, but whose so-called currents "Pull-outs" can quickly lead offshore.
They take away dozens of bathers every summer, some of whom perish.
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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.