Four drowning people rescued

On a hot August day, two families with five children decided to take a dip in the Šventoji River in Ukmergė district.

On a hot August day, two families with five children decided to take a dip in the Šventoji River in Ukmergė district. Soon, a 11-year-old girl was caught in the whirlpool and started to drown. Her dad and her 14-year-old cousin, who was attending swimming lessons, jumped in to save her. Unfortunately, the current caught them too, and the men began to drown. Fortunately, some kayakers were passing by. One of them, Arūnas Kazimierėnas, jumped into the water to rescue the drowning people, but the current immediately began to push him to the bottom. Raimundas Vizbaras, who was in another kayak, remembered the advice he had heard from a Crises Research Center instructor a week earlier. So he threw a life jacket to a 14-year-old to help him stay afloat, and helped three others to grab onto their kayaks. “I remember they explained to us that you can throw a 1.5 litre plastic bottle, which helps you stay afloat, or you can stretch out a piece of clothing so that the drowning person can hold onto it, but you should never jump into the water yourself,” says Vizbaras.

Read more:
Ukmergė district newspaper Gimtoji žemė.
In the portal Ukmergės žinios.