Bathing tragedy on the Baltic Sea: 80-year-old woman dies while swimming!

Bathing tragedy on the Baltic Sea: 80-year-old woman dies while swimming!

Kühlungsborn, Deutschland - Sad news reached us from the Baltic Sea: An 80-year-old woman from the Rostock district died during a swimming trip near Kühlungsborn. According to the Ostsee-Zeitung At 6 p.m. the rescue control center received an emergency call from a relative who was on the beach and reported that the woman had been missing in the water for 15 minutes.

The emergency services of the water protection police immediately went in search of the missing person. After about half an hour, it was discovered about 80 meters from the coast by the use of a rescue helicopter. Unfortunately, the rescue workers could no longer reanimate them. This tragic incident is already marking the fourth bathing accident this season.

swimming accidents in the Baltic Sea

The situation on our coasts is alarming. Already this season there were three further bathing accidents with a fatal outcome: A 65-year-old swimmer died on May 15 near the Prerower Seebrücke, a lifeless woman from Berlin was discovered on June 4, and on June 15, a 71-year-old vacationer was fatal.

According to the German Lebens-Rettungs Society (DLRG), a year was full of bathing accidents in 2024: a total of 29 people drowned in the waters of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, while 20 bathing boots were recorded in the previous year. But the numbers for all of Germany are even more terrifying. In 2023, 411 people drowned nationwide, which means an increase of 31 deaths compared to the previous year. It is the first time since 2019 that the number of bathing deaths has increased again, such as the dlrg

relationships and prevention measures

The DLRG President Ute Vogt expressed hope that people are sensitized to the dangers associated with bathing in these warm months. Older people in particular and those with health problems are susceptible to bathing accidents, especially during the summer months. In 2024, 48 percent of the victims drowned during this time, and over 60 percent of those affected were older than 50 years.

In order to increase safety in the water, the DLRG relies on prevention measures. There is a new campaign that educates parents of small children about particularly dangerous situations when swimming. In addition, the DLRG sees a worrying number of primary school children who leave school without swimming - around 20 percent, while half of the children cannot swim safely.

The number of bathing deaths in Germany was again high in 2024, with 411 victims, most of them in the North and Baltic Sea. A clear indication that we all have to pay more attention to the safety on the water in order to avoid tragic incidents like this.