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Two swimmers died in separate incidents after getting caught in a riptide, prompting French authorities to issue a warning about the strong currents and riptides along the Gironde coastline in southwestern France.
The 56-year-old German woman was swept away and drowned on Sunday off the coast of Lège-Cap-Ferret. Nearby, in Lacanau, a man of 60 died in a separate incident.
Since Friday, emergency services in the Gironde department have already rescued 31 people from the water. Local authorities urged beachgoers to exercise “maximum vigilance”.
French authorities are warning of riptides, narrow but incredibly strong currents of water that pull away from the shore into the open sea.
They form when breaking waves push large volumes of water onto the beach, which then channels together and flows back into the ocean through a concentrated current.
Ripties can be extremely powerful and dangerous, even to experienced swimmers, as they can rapidly drag people away from the shore. A typical feature is that they are typically difficult to spot at, sometimes appearing as a calmer or darker stretch of water between breaking waves.
If caught in a riptide, it is important not to swim against the current. Instead, swimmers should move parallel to the shoreline until they are out of the current, and make their way back to the beach.
In southwestern France, unusually high temperatures for this time of year were recorded, exceeding 30 degrees Celsius over the weekend. The warm weather attracted large crowds to the beaches.
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