Father brings children to shore and drowns
Tragic Accident in Austrian Wolfgangsee: A father of four and a friend venture into the water to rescue four children due to an approaching storm. Suddenly, the 41-year-old man goes missing. Later, divers find the Czech man's lifeless body at eight meters depth.
A 41-year-old father of four has reportedly died in an accident at the Wolfgangsee in Austria. As reported by various media outlets, including the daily newspaper "Heute" and the "Kleine Zeitung", four children from two families were on stand-up paddle boards on the lake near the village of Abersee on Thursday evening around 7 p.m. when they were blown off course by the wind. Due to an approaching storm, the 41-year-old man decided to go into the water to bring the children to safety with the help of a friend.
Once the children were safely on shore, the 41-year-old Czech man was nowhere to be found. After initial attempts to locate him by emergency services failed, a large search operation was launched. This involved 40 divers from the Salzburg Water Rescue and the fire department, several boats, a drone, and a rescue helicopter.
It was only after the divers formed an underwater search line that the man's lifeless body was found about 15 meters from the shore in eight meters of water. The 41-year-old could not be revived. In total, more than 100 emergency services personnel were involved in the operation, the water rescue service reported.
Just last Tuesday, a man nearly drowned in the Wolfgangsee. According to police, a 77-year-old Polish tourist could no longer keep himself afloat. A 41-year-old man from Upper Austria noticed the situation and rushed to help on a stand-up paddle board. He managed to lift the already unconscious man onto the board and bring him to shore. A rescue helicopter then took the 77-year-old to a hospital. No further information on the man's health status was provided by the police.
The 41-year-old man was initially planning to ensure the children's safety by swimming with them towards shore. Despite finding the children safely, the father unfortunately did not make it out of the water himself.
