A 56-year-old woman who had thrown herself into the water was saved by a firefighter who was jogging on the banks of the Oise on Tuesday morning.
Both were taken to hospital in Pontoise in relative emergency after spending long minutes in the freezing water of the river.
The alert was given around 8:40 a.m. when the firefighter, assigned to the Magnanville rescue center (Yvelines), discovered while running on the towpath, between Jouy-le-Moutier and Maurecourt (Yvelines), the presence of a woman who fell in the Oise.
She has just thrown herself into the water voluntarily to end her life.
The rescuer did not hesitate for a second: he alerted the emergency services and immediately dived to recover the woman and bring her back to the bank.
But the victim did not want to cooperate and opposed the firefighter who had joined her, refusing to return to the bank with him.
Her rescuer remained by her side for several long minutes, keeping her on the surface, waiting for help to arrive.
Taken to hospital under police escort
Alerted, the latter deployed significant resources to recover the two people bathing in the river.
Several boats were launched and were able to quickly get to the height of the woman and the firefighter before fishing them out.
The latter were taken care of by the rescue teams who had prepared the survival blankets and deployed on the avenue des Saules-Brûlés, which runs along the Oise.
Eighteen firefighters from Sdis 95 and six machines were mobilized for this intervention which lasted more than two hours.
The woman was taken to hospital under police escort.