As soon as the alert is given, searches are triggered. Two gendarmes from the Auros brigade, on patrol at the time at La Réole, rush towards the Rouergue bridge. At the end of a pontoon, facing the Réolais quays, they see a woman entering the river. The soldiers did not hesitate for a second, joined the scene and threw themselves into the particularly cold water in this month of February.
Carried away by the current
One manages to touch the woman with his fingertips, but fails to catch her, the current carrying him away. Obliged to return to the shore, the two gendarmes quickly unload their equipment, weapons and bulletproof vests, and find the help of a witness who provides them with a rope. They dive again and, thanks to the rope, manage to reach the sexagenarian, carried almost in the middle of the river.