Rescue Operation – Girl (3) adrift at sea



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– She was in shock, she didn’t speak, she was frozen.

Petros Kritsonis told the New York Times.

Kritsonis was a passenger aboard the ferry that last week picked up a three-year-old girl from the waves off Antirrio in southern Greece.

SAVED: The three-year-old girl clung to the unicorn swimmer. Photo: Petros Kritsonis / Reuters / NTB Scanpix
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20 minutes earlier, the wind had caught the animal on which the girl was sitting and had sent her farther and farther from the beach where her parents were.

Before they could react, the daughter was out of reach. The parents then raised the alarm with local port authorities, writes Greek City Times.

White unicorn

The port authorities notified the closest vessel off Antirrio.

When the ferry captain Grigoris Karnesis discovered the girl, he clung to the neck of the bathing animal, a white unicorn with a rainbow-colored mane.

The rescue operation was dramatic, according to the New York Times:

Karnesis, an experienced sailor, had to navigate the approximately 100-meter-long ferry as close to the girl as possible. At the same time, Karnesis had to prevent the bathing animal from capsizing or ending up in the waves behind the ship.

HEROIC: The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, did not hesitate when he discovered that two women needed help in the water. Reporter: Christian Wehus. Video: KameraOne
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Several hundred meters of land

When the girl was close enough, the captain’s brother, and the ship’s mechanic, Vasilis Karnesis, went down a ramp that is usually used by cars on board.

- I couldn't believe what I saw

– I couldn’t believe what I saw

From there, Karnesis picked up the girl from the waves.

USA Today writes that the three-year-old was almost half a kilometer from the ground when she was rescued.

A similar scenario unfolded in Norway this summer, when two teenagers in a flamingo bathing animal failed to land at Salhusfjord in Bergen.

– We tried to row the flamenco inwards with our hands, but the current was strong and we got tired. We were quite stressed out and afraid of being hit by boats, one of the girls told Bergensavisen.



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