Mallorca woman saves drowning boy, 10, off 'red flag' beach

A WOMAN risked her life against the current to save a 10-year-old boy from drowning off a Palma de Mallorca beach – and he has now completely recovered from his ordeal, despite his rescuer's saying she 'did not hold out much hope' of being able to get him safely ashore.

Macarena Cabrujo, from Argentina, works for the Balearic Emergency Institute but was off-duty when she saw the Senegalese child, who could not swim, in difficulty.

He was close to the string of buoys off the Can Pere Antoni beach, but not close enough, she said.

And the sea was in a dangerous condition, with the red flag having been hoisted warning bathers to keep out of the water.

“As soon as I ripped off my trousers I knew what I was getting myself into – I didn't have anything floating with me to help,” Macarena says.

When she reached the little boy, he said to her: “I thought you weren't going to save me because I'm black.”

“There's something wrong with society if a boy of 10 has that idea in his head,” Macarena told reporters.

“I told him, 'you're beautiful, I've come to get you out'.

“But I didn't hold out much hope.”

At one point, she says, after managing to reach the buoys by a super-human effort, she was hanging onto one of them with just one finger, which she slotted into one of the holes in desperation.

“I accompanied him for the last few minutes, but it was really he who was doing the fighting. I told him, 'grab hold of me, we're going to get out together', and I managed to tow him to the first buoy,” reveals Macarena.

Once they were back on the shore against all odds, Macarena calmed the frightened child down and sat with him until emergency services arrived.

He was taken to hospital straight away and checked over, and is now said to be out of danger and due to be discharged any time soon.

 

Photograph of Can Pere Antoni beach by Palma de Mallorca city council