The manager of the XV of France could not do anything to save his childhood friend Fabrice Labarrière during an outing in Spain.
On Monday, a terrible drama took place on the Deva river located in the Cantabria region of Spain. Raphaël Ibanez, manager of the XV of France, and his childhood friend Fabrice Labarrière had decided to go down the river in a kayak. The duo’s ride turned tragic when Fabrice Labarrière fell from his boat near the village of La Hermida.
“He got stuck in the eddies under a rock and some branches. He drowned, says a close friend of Raphaël Ibanez at Parisian . Raphael was next to him. He did everything he could to save him, but in vain.”
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Difficult research due to the current
According to the local newspaper El Comercio, significant resources, including two helicopters, were deployed to find the 48-year-old victim from the Landes. His lifeless body was eventually located near two rocks known in the region as “Las Lágrimas de Don Pelayo” (Don Pelayo’s Tears). Stuck under branches, its extraction required the use of ropes and the cutting of a tree trunk. The search was made very difficult by the strong current and the flood caused by the acceleration of snowmelt in recent days.
In the regional daily, Oscar Sanchez and Eva Caso, of the Cantabrian Tourism Association, indicated that the use of boats was only authorized in this river “from Thursday to Sunday“and pointed out the danger present in the area of the accident”which is generally not used“.
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