Rescuing three young men from drowning in Syria’s Raqqa
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – On Monday, divers of the Initial Response Team in Raqqa, northern Syria, rescued, with the help of local residents, three young men who had been swallowed by the pipes of an irrigation water pumping station north of the city.
Khaled al-Saleh, 30, an eyewitness in al-Hakoumiya village, 20 km north of Raqqa, said that the young men were swimming in a water canal near the mouth of pumping pipes coming from the al-Hakoumiya station.
When the pumping was turned off, the water returning to the pipes swept away the three young men with them, according to al-Saleh.
The residents managed to rescue one of them, while the divers of the Initial Response Team pulled out the other two young men and took them to the National Hospital in Raqqa.
Mahmoud Abdo, head of the Divers Department in Raqqa, said that the second survivor was in critical condition due to a broken leg and pelvis.
He added that one of the divers had to enter the water pipe for about ten meters to save the third young man.
With high summer temperatures and in light of the increase in the rationing hours of power due to Turkey’s reduction of the Euphrates water flow, the residents of Raqqa and its countryside are heading to the Euphrates River and the irrigation lines.
Cases of drowning in the Euphrates River are frequent and the victims of which are often children or young people.
The Initial Response Team intends to create permanent rescue detachments on the Euphrates River, according to the head of the Divers Department of the team.
In April, four people, including a child, drowned after their car fell into the Euphrates River near al-Mashlab neighborhood on the outskirts of the southern city of Raqqa.
In the same month, a girl died after being pulled out of the Balikh Canal, west of the city.