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A passer-by sits on the banks of the Rhine in Mainz to cool off on a hot summer’s day. The German Life Saving Society (DLRG) again warns against swimming in the Rhine after a 49-year-old drowned near Bingen in the Rhine on Thursday.
Photo: Peter Zschunke (ZB)
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Despite multiple warnings, a 28-year-old from Darmstadt sought cooling in the Rhine. Like a 49-year-old father, he drowned on the other side of the river.
A man drowned for the second day in a row while trying to cool off in the Rhine. The body of a 28-year-old was recovered near Mainz and Wiesbaden on Saturday evening, who is said to have climbed into the river near Biebesheim (Groß-Gerau district) on Friday and then went under shortly thereafter. On Thursday, a 49-year-old man drowned after running over a groyne in the Rhine near Bingen with his two children aged eight and eleven and another man and falling into the river.
The 28-year-old from Darmstadt has been missing since Friday evening. Firefighters, rescue services, the Hessian police squadron and patrols from the Groß-Gerau police department were involved in the search.
The police and the German Life Saving Society (DLRG) have urgently warned against swimming in the Rhine in view of the high temperatures in June. “The danger of the water is always underestimated,” said a police officer in Bingen. “When it gets hot, the number of accidents increases,” said a DLRG spokesman. Groynes in the Rhine are particularly dangerous – the riprap created at right angles to the bank serves to protect the bank. The vortices that form there could quickly catch bathers. “They are pulled into the fairway, panic and then they lose,” said the DLRG spokesman.
dpa