"They had water up to their chin": In Bron, two police officers save a family from drowning

Jean-Luc Boujon, edited by Loane Nader // Photo credit: JEAN-PHILIPPE KSIAZEK / AFP 20:45 pm, June 05, 2023

Temperatures have been rising sharply for more than a week, but this is accompanied by sometimes violent weather phenomena, especially in the southern part of the France. This is the case in Lyon, where thunderstorms sounded last weekend. Major flooding has also disrupted the region, such as in Bron, a suburb of Lyon, where a woman and her two children were trapped in their car. The vehicle broke down, resulting in the engine drowning as the water rose inexorably.

Photo credit: Jean-Luc Boujon / Europe 1

Luckily, the family was rescued by two municipal police officers who were on patrol at the time. Maxime, one of these two agents, testified about the incident at the microphone of Europe 1. "There was a lot of water falling. We saw a vehicle in the hopper and at the same time, we saw a lady who was in a panic. Without thinking, we immediately threw ourselves to his rescue. In this case, I went into the water, dive immediately and see what was happening, "says the policeman, before evoking the victims. "There were two children in this vehicle, five and seven years old. They had water pretty much up to their chins. It was really urgent."

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1m80 deep

It was then imperative to react with the greatest speed, given the height of the water in which they were. "At the deepest, the water was at 1m80. I dived directly into the water and I asked the lady what was going on, if it was her children and she confirmed it to me, "adds Maxime. "I immediately took the first child in front of me. I brought him behind, to a safe position at my colleague's house and then I went to get the second child underwater."

"This is not the time to panic, this is not the time to stress," says the policeman. "You have to go, you have to help. It's our job as police officers, simply." To call oneself a hero is therefore not justified for the latter, whose courage is still remarkable. "I'm not a hero. You know, there are a lot of police officers who do the same work as us every day, it's daily, so we're not heroes. We are not only here for repression. We're here to help everybody, anybody."

This day ended with more fear than harm for this Brondillante family. "The children, we reassured them in the service vehicle. They wanted to put the 'pin-pon', as they said. We put the 'pin-pon' to reassure them and then we gave them to the parents. And that's it, everything went well, "concludes the gendarme at the microphone of Europe 1.