Two people lost their lives after a rafting accident on the Guil this Monday, June 17 afternoon. The two missing are of Czech origin.
A rafting accident occurred on the Guil, in Aiguilles (Hautes-Alpes), this Monday, June 17, BFM DICI learned. Two people died following drowning.
The incident occurred just after 2:30 p.m. Two rafting-type boats, with two groups of five people of Czech origin on board, descend the Guil.
One of the victims first hospitalized
Taken by the river’s current, which was very strong at the moment, the two rafts overturned. If in the first boat, the occupants escaped unscathed, in the second, two people lost their lives.
Among the victims, a man was in cardio-respiratory arrest when emergency services arrived. He was pronounced dead by drowning at the scene.
Another woman was taken out of the water with a “very weak pulse” and evacuated to Briançon hospital by the Briançon CRS, where she died from her injuries around 5:30 p.m.
Boats “poorly adapted to the flow”
The two boats received first aid from another group of kayakers, from the CRFCK (Regional Canoe-Kayak Training Center) who were in training a few meters further down.
According to the Hautes-Alpes gendarmerie, the small boats were “unsuitable for the flow of the Guil at the start of the season” and they were not supervised.
An investigation was opened and entrusted to the Guillestre gendarmerie brigade. Criminal identification technicians from the gendarmerie went to the site to clarify the circumstances of the tragedy.
“An autopsy will be carried out for the two victims and hearings will be carried out in order to understand the circumstances of the tragedy”, specifies the Gap prosecutor to BFM DICI.
