The strong wave action and undertow could have claimed the lives of bathers on Torrenueva-Costa beaches yesterday but a human chain managed to pull them out.

The incident took place on Playa del Cañón in front of Edificio Acapulco and luckily for the struggling swimmers an off-duty National policeman, Elías I.G, and the lifeguard on duty, Norberto Monte, were there and prepared to do all that was necessary to save them.

It was 20.00h on Thursday when three swimmers could not only not get back to the beach owing to the undertow but a strong current was sweeping them towards the rocks.

A woman managed to alert the lifeguard who had been clearing up for the day. He rushed to the shoreline and saw a minor, her father and another swimmer in difficulty amongst the waves.

The thing is that a red flag had been flying to stop people going into the water for their own safety, however, many beachgoers ignored this, amongst them the three people struggling in the water, being pushed towards the rocks.

Norberto dived into the water, not even taking the time to strip off his T-shirt. He soon saw that there was not only a teenage girl in trouble, as the woman had told him, but two more swimmers with her – more than he could handle by himself.

Even so, he reached the girl and from behind grabbed hold of her and towed her back almost to the beach but he saw people on the breakwater indicating that he should bring her there so that they could reach down and pull her out. As soon as she was out of the water he headed back in for the father – he had lost sight of the other swimmer and feared the worse. Fortunately, when he reached the father, he told him that the other swimmer had been fished out by other bathers.

It was at this point that the policeman, Elías, entered into the sequence of things. He saw a group of people gathered on the shoreline and approached to see what was happening, which was when he saw that a single lifeguard was in the water with no back up.

Fortunately, Elías was a person who had practised surfboarding for years and was used to swimming in waves and knew how to judge sea conditions. He saw immediately that the people on the shoreline and those on the rocks were in danger of being engulfed and dragged into the sea so he warned them all to get back before plunging into the water to join Norberto and the father.

Between them they towed the father out further into the sea to get away from the undertow and currents, so that they could find a safe area of the beach and swim towards it.

Enter Manuel Benavides, who is a barber, and armed with a coil of line on a drum, he dived in as well but soon got as far as the line would reach and shouted for the rescuers to head for him, which they did. Then people gathered on the beach began to pull the line in with the father attached. The lifeguard, policeman and barber managed to reach the beach on their own steam.

Back on the beach they were received with warm gratitude and embraces.

(News: Torrenueva Costa, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia – Source: Ideal)