Several hundred kayakers, mainly students, who were descending the Lesse this Thursday found themselves in great difficulty following too high a flow, indicate Olivier Pitance, manager of Dinant Evasion, the only operator offering the descent of the river, and the mayor of Dinant, Thierry Bodlet.
Emergency services were called to the area early this Thursday afternoon. “Around 2 p.m., the area’s firefighters were called for children in difficulty on the Lesse. We did not have a count at the start of the intervention and then it turned out that we were faced with an evacuation of between 400 and 500 children and adolescents”indicates Patrice Liétard, captain of the Dinant fire zone.
The students came from several schools across the country,
Emergency services were deployed on site in large numbers. “Our teams are raking the Lesse upstream and going back down to the end of the Lesse where the children are welcomed with thermal blankets.” A helicopter flies over the Lesse to see if there are any young people stranded on the banks of the Lesse, in places that are not accessible from the road. The young evacuees have medical monitoring.
We learned around 4:30 p.m. that the search operations had ended. “No one is on the Lesse anymore”, indicate the firefighters. The counting of adolescents is underway “to make sure no one is missing”.
The last teenagers boarded the buses to be repatriated around 6:45 p.m. The emergency plan has been lifted.
The victims tell
“My life jacket came off because it was too big”testifies Youssef, one of the victims. “I had to swim, I was super cold. I put on a blanket. The water was crazy deep, I couldn’t stand.”
“There are many who have fallen, including me,” says Kilian. “When we arrived, when there were waterfalls, small descents, you could see straight away that it was a bit strong. We told ourselves that it was normal, maybe it was in the sense of fun, but ultimately no.” Mohamed helped his comrades get out of the water.“Seeing everyone in front of you falling little by little like hotcakes, it’s still impressive”
“When we left, they told us, ‘Be careful, the water is a little higher, it could be a little more dangerous but we had already left, we were more than halfway so it was a little complicated”says Andy, supervisor of one of the classes present on site.
“Water flow too high”
The municipal emergency plan has been triggered, specifies the mayor of Dinant, Thierry Bodlet. “These young people were released when the water flow was too high. Many fell into the water”explains the mayor. “Everyone who has gone down the Lesse since this morning says they should never have started. Some are hypothermic.”
Olivier Pitance, manager of Dinant Evasion, explains this situation by the arrival “with a huge splash of water” that no one saw coming. “The Lesse has increased by 1m50 in two hours, it creates a real tidal wave. It’s a natural phenomenon that I have never seen in my life”, he testifies.
“We stopped launching kayaks, now we are trying to help people who are worried”continues Olivier Pitance. “Some people fell into the water but everyone has a life jacket, no one is risking their life. There are still 600 people on the water, that’s a lot of people to take care of. “
descent of the lass
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