Rescue diver killed after well recovery - Saudi Arabia

[DandyDon]

This one is bizarre. Saudi Gazette - Diver dies after pulling out kid

MAKKAH – A Civil Defense rescue diver died in a freak accident on Sunday after he pulled out the body of a three-year-child from a well in Rehat village, 115 kilometers away from Al-Jamoom governorate in the Makkah region.

Corporal Naif Al-Qethami climbed out of the well with child’s the body. There was a large number of onlookers standing outside the well when he got out and he was pushed back in by mistake by the milling crowd.
His head hit the edge of the well and he fell unconscious into the 25-feet deep hole.

His colleagues dived in after him to try and save him but it was too late. His body was taken to hospital.

Al-Qethami served as a diver for nine years and rescued many people from drowning.

He was chosen to go down the well and search for the little child who had gone missing for many hours.

After receiving the emergency call, the Civil Defense searched for the child in different places without success.

The father then told the officers that he had a well near the house and perhaps his child fell into it.

A spokesman for the Civil Defense said there were 400 onlookers outside the well. When the child was pulled out, they started pushing and shoving to see him and that was when Al-Qethami was pushed back into the well. He was buried in Makkah on Monday.

 

[koozemani]

Wow! And that's all I'm going to say about that.

 

[Simon-]

Nothing surprises me in the Middle East

 

[DandyDon]

I remember a couple of scary times working around abandoned wells on the farms, but I never had crowds to tend with. I can't imagine that scene, but it is a different culture.