Heroic Vacationer Drowns While Attempting to Save Elderly Swimmer in Cap d’Agde

Isaam will not return to Port-à-l’Anglais where he lives with his wife and two daughters. While he was trying to rescue an elderly person with his companion, Maud, on the beach of La Roquille in Cap d’Agde (Hérault), on May 21, the pillar of the football section of the Ultramarine Sports Association (Asum) of Vitry-sur-Seine, also a truck driver by profession, died. The firefighters who arrived on the scene tried to revive him for 30 minutes. Without success.

According to the explanations of Jérôme Bonnafoux, lieutenant-colonel of the firefighters of the Sdis 34 and elected official in Agde, the coastline is struck by a "sea stroke". "A sea stroke is the same principle as the baïnes in the Atlantic, he explains. These are currents that suck you in. In trying to help, he exhausted himself."

The elderly person was able to reach the beach. With the help of a young man, Issam’s companion was able to get out of it. "I swim better than him but Issam is like that, whole. He rushes when he sees someone in distress and he could stop for anyone on the side of the road," Maud tells the newspaper Le Parisien.

An online kitty has been launched on the Leetchi platform for Issam’s family. Already more than 6,705 euros raised, last Tuesday.