Med almost claims third victim in a week

The catalogue of incidents began on Sunday when an elderly woman was pulled out of the sea at the Sablettes beach in Menton in the Alpes-Maritimes. Despite the rapid intervention of the emergency services they were not able to revive her.

The incident in La Croix-Valmer in the Var bore all the hallmarks of the first and involved a similar aged woman. Luckily the 74-year-old tourist was with friends who alerted the life-guards immediately and after they had performed the necessary first aid measures she was taken to the hospital in Gassin and then by helicopter to Bonnet.

The most disturbing was the death of a young man aged 22 off the coast of Nice late Sunday afternoon. He was swimming out to a buoy about 300 metres offshore with a group of friends when one of them suddenly noticed that the young man was no longer with them. Despite a massive search by divers his body has still not been recovered.

Whether he suffered a sudden cramp, or had an undetected heart condition or was simply out of his depth, this tragedy brought Francis Lamy, Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, out to urge caution and follow some simple rules: swim from beaches where there is a life-guard, respect the colours of the flags which warn if the sea is too rough, and do not over-estimate your abilities and strengths as a swimmer. CL