Groynes or breakwaters might protect the coast from erosion but they also form nasty currents, which is why you shouldn't dive off them.

Bearing this in mind, here is an update on the saving of two young girls in the sea off Torrenueva Costas.

The woman who put her own life in danger to rescue the 7-year-old girl is called Lourdes. She had gone in after the child but both were being swept out to sea by these treacherous currents that swirl around groynes.

She explained that all her efforts were concentrating on keeping the girls head out of the water so that she didn’t swallow more seawater. The child’s lips were blue and her pupils had gone up leaving only the whites of her eyes.

She could hear a friend on the beach calling to her to come back and save her own life but she persisted. It was one of those times that she managed to get her own head above water that she heard a voice next to her and a hand gripping her.

Two men had swum out to them; one 31-year-old a Chemistry teacher. It was him that had rescued the other girls. They had clung to him as he towed them back to the beach. Nearer the beach, a woman had helped him cover the last part.

On the beach he vomited up all the seawater that he had swallowed but instead of resting, he put on a pair of flippers and struck out to where Lourdes was.

The second man was a 35-year-old personal trainer from Granada who covered the 150 metres from where he had been sitting on the beach to reach Lourdes – luckily for Lourdes he had been a lifeguard for 15 years before leaving it for his present profession. He was the first to reach her and was later joined by the teacher.

On the beach volunteers from the Protección Civil were waiting with their first-aid material.

All of those involved have recovered; Lourdes and the girls. But what of the mother of the 7-year-old, for example – she doesn’t know how to swim and could only watch her daughter being rescue. She expressed her eternal gratitude.

Editorial comment: maybe it’s a good time to start taking swimming lessons if you are going to take your children to the beach?

(News/Noticias: Torrenueva Costa, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)