Ille-et-Vilaine: during a carefree swim, he sinks steeply under the eyes of his friends

A tragic swim. This Sunday, July 17, a 28-year-old died while swimming in a former quarry in Saint-Malo-de-Phily, south of Rennes, in Ille-et-Vilaine. According to the emergency services, the victim had plunged into the water before starting to swim and then “to sink“under the eyes of his friends. Diving firefighters were mobilized to fish out the man in this basin deep of one thirty meters. But after several attempts at resuscitation, the victim finally died.

The gendarmes were also present at the scene. “According to witnesses, he screamed when he was in trouble”said the Redon gendarmerie company, which opened an investigation.

The quarry prohibited from public access

An autopsy of the body will be conducted but “everything suggests” that it is a hydrocution, caused by the temperature difference between the outside and the water. Indeed, this Sunday, around 36 degrees were recorded in the shade in Ille-et-Vilaine. The department, like the whole of Brittany, was placed on red alert on Monday with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees in places.

The old Saint-Malo-de-Phily quarry is prohibited from public access. But for several years, many people go there to walk there and even to bathe there. “The gendarmerie and the municipality have been preventing people from going there for years, but sometimes panels are removed and wire mesh is cut”, noted the gendarmerie quoted by Actu.fr. Due to the depth of the waters, the water temperature is generally very cold.