Despite the rapid intervention of the firefighters, the victim could not be resuscitated. On Sunday, a 40-year-old man also lost his life in similar circumstances. The previous morning, the body of a thirty-year-old had been recovered from the port of Nice.
The Figaro Nice
A dark series on the most beautiful avenue in the capital of the Côte d’Azur. In the space of a few days, three individuals lost their lives after drowning at sea in Nice. On the night of Monday to Tuesday, at around 1 a.m., emergency services were called to Coccon Beach, at 161 Promenade des Anglais.
Upon arrival, the firefighters and the emergency services discovered a young man in his twenties, fully clothed, in cardiorespiratory arrest following a drowning. All attempts to revive him unfortunately ended in failure. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene. It is not known at this stage in what circumstances the tragedy occurred, in particular whether the young man was drunk or under the influence of drugs at the time of his drowning. An investigation has been opened by the Nice public prosecutor’s office.
On Sunday, around 6pm on Ponchettes beach, further up the “prom”, a 40-year-old man also drowned about twenty metres from the shore after visibly running out of breath due to the strong swell. Here again, the ten or so firefighters mobilised were unable to do anything to resuscitate him. Red flags were raised at the end of the afternoon and several beaches in Nice were evacuated by the national police given the gusts of up to 70 km/h and the dangerous waves, some of which were over 1.50 metres high. On Saturday, a little after 10am, the lifeless body of a man of around thirty was also recovered from the port of Nice. The unfortunate man may have been the victim of a fall from the port’s sea wall. An investigation has also been opened to shed light on the circumstances of his death.
361 fatal drownings in 2023
As the summer season begins in the Bay of Angels, caution is still required. Sunny blue skies, warm temperatures and a reputedly calm sea do not mean that no precautions should be taken. As a reminder, between 1is June and September 30, 2023, 1,336 drownings were recorded in France, including 361 deaths, according to data from Santé Publique France. The sea is also the place where the number of drownings followed by death is the highest (45%). On their Facebook page, the Alpes-Maritimes firefighters recalled on Tuesday morning some good gestures to adopt to jump into the water safely: “Supervise children; equip yourself with the appropriate equipment (buoy, armband, etc.); be sober and do not overestimate your physical abilities; respect the safety instructions indicated by the bathing flags; favor supervised bathing areas.”
