Flood of the Gardon in Dions, in the Gard: tragic epilogue of the research after the discovery of a third body

Durant cinq jours de recherches, pompiers et gendarmes ont travaillé de concert. Mikael Anisset – Midi Libre

Friday March 15, the lifeless body of a 12-year-old boy was discovered on the banks of the receding Gardon in Sainte-Anastasie. On Saturday March 9, his family's car was swept away by torrential waters on a submersible bridge. His father and his 4-year-old sister also perished in this tragedy. 

Her small body had been actively sought by firefighters and gendarmes from many departments for almost six days. This Friday March 15 at the end of the morning, the lifeless body of Kylian, 12 years old, was found by three gendarmes on the banks of the Gardon in recession, not far from Pont-Saint-Nicolas. in the commune of Sainte-Anastasie north of Nîmes.

Saturday March 9 around 11:30 p.m., this boy was swept away by the swollen Gardon with his dad, his 4-year-old little sister and his stepmother, while the family Citroen C3 was in the middle of a storm , was trying to cross a submersible bridge in the town of Dions. If the driver of the vehicle had miraculously been airlifted by the emergency services at the risk of their own lives, a major effort had since then been deployed to try to find the other occupants of the car.< /p>

At the beginning and then in the middle of the week, their car (empty) then the bodies of Kylian's father and little sister were found by firefighters and police. And since Wednesday, all forces have been focused on the search for the last victim of this tragedy.

Sixteen dog crews

"Since 7:15 a.m., no less than 150 people, including 120 firefighters, 20 gendarmes and 10 pruning agents from the Gard department have been mobilized to try to find the teenager. 16 dog crews from among others Haute-Gardonne, Isère, Ardèche but also Gers and Loire, participated in particular to operations. Search operations which were envisaged from the first hour on an area extending into the bed and on the banks of the Gardon, from the Dions bridge to the village of Remoulins ", detailed the macabre discovery shortly after the fire brigade operations commander, Captain Flavien Balat.

Backhoe loaders, canoes and divers

Piloted by the gendarmerie under the authority of the public prosecutor of Nîmes, the exceptional search system put in place to find Kylian involved, this Friday morning,  the creation, with backhoe loaders, of routes dedicated to research, the requisition of canoe-kayaks, or even the unprecedented mobilization of scuba divers.

Prosecutor Gensac and General Chuberre spoke after the discovery of the child's body. C.S. – Midi Libre

"These new means of intervention made possible at this stage of the decline allowed the mobilized forces to ;access new spaces. And it was precisely the prospecting in these new hitherto inaccessible areas which led to the discovery of the body of this child", a& ;nbsp;announces General Eric Chuberre, commander of the Gard gendarmerie group.

Research into the causes of death

"The investigations (now open by the head of "research into the causes of death", Editor's note) and the investigations which will continue aim to determine all of the causes of these human tragedies and to establish their circumstances", indicated the public prosecutor of Nîmes, Cécile Gensac, after expressing her greatest compassion towards the families and loved ones of the victims continued to the discovery of Kylian's body.

At 2:30 p.m., the forensic medicine department of the Nîmes University Hospital was preparing to remove the body of the child, the last victim of bad weather fatalities which struck the Gard on the night of March 9 to 10, and whose remains were discovered 6 km below the Dions bridge on which his family's car was ;nbsp;carried away by the waters.

A submersible bridge – and above all totally submerged at the time of the tragedy – whose accessibility that evening, in the middle of a storm while the # The entire department was placed on yellow alert, which today raises serious questions.

I subscribe to read more