CÉLINE HAS ARRIVED - TESTIMONIAL - On Monday, the collapse of a suspension bridge over the Tarn caused two deaths, the driver of a truck and a 15-year-old girl. Celine, a resident of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn, is one of the first people to have visited the scene of the disaster. Her intervention helped to save the mother of the second victim.

TESTIMONIAL EUROPE 1

It was eight o'clock in the morning when Celine heard "a loud noise". This resident of Mirepoix-sur-Tarn (Haute-Garonne) does not know it yet, but it is the suspension bridge of 1931 which has just collapsed suddenly. The beginning of the "horror" for this Haute-Garonne whose action will still have saved one of the victims, the mother of Lisa, a teenager aged fifteen, died in the accident. On Tuesday morning, Céline told this story at the microphone of Europe 1.

A woman down below, "paralyzed"

Opening the window, Celine notices the extent of the damage. "I saw giant waves in the electrical wires, there was debris passing through the water," says the Mirapicienne. It is at this moment that she hears "the cry" of a person. Celine hurries to get dressed to go out in the street and see what happens. "I saw that there was a lady down in the water," says Celine. The victim is on the banks below, in a very steep area. In difficulty, she "clings somehow", according to the resident. "She was cold and seemed paralyzed," says Celine, while the mother tells her she will faint. The people present, waiting for help, talk to her and try to reassure her.

"My daughter, my daughter," she said

"A nurse, who was coming back from her night shift, has arrived," Céline says. "She wanted to go down to help her," but it was impossible. The banks of the Tarn are very steep at this level, making the area inaccessible. For the inhabitants, the situation was all the more difficult. "We could do nothing more than talk to her," says the Mirapician, who remembers that the victim "did not call for help," but said "my daughter, my daughter," also in the car at moment of the drama.

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Then "everything went very fast", according to Céline. There were "cars everywhere": police, firemen, Samu. Despite their means, "they had trouble extracting it from the Tarn", describes Haute-Garonne. Two people were able to reach the mother and "put a quilt on it" to try to warm her up. "There was a momentum of solidarity from the whole village," she says. "With our small means, we tried to help, but we did not have much in hand," admits Céline, who would like to know "how is this lady going today".