A miraculous rescue

The Daily Mail reports on an amazing rescue, co-ordinated from hundreds of miles away.

A German man owes his life to a woman who rescued him from 350 miles away – thanks to his camera.

The man lost on a frozen stretch of the North Sea was facing almost certain death when he flashed his camera in the hope that someone might be out watching the same beautiful sunset he had set out to witness.

Luckily the camera flash off the coast of St. Peter-Ording near the Danish border was witnessed by a female nature lover sitting in front of her computer in the Westerwald region near the Rhine hundreds of miles away in southern Germany.

She was monitoring a camera set up on the beach to record the vivid sunset.

Seeing the camera flashes she alerted local police who in turn sent through an emergency call that resulted in a patrol rescuing the man as temperatures plunged to -20° centigrade (-4° Fahrenheit).

German authorities said it was the first incident of its kind where a person's life had been saved in this way.

Police spokeswoman Kristin Stielow said: 'He was walking on the ice, got disoriented and would probably have either fallen through the ice or succumbed to the cold.

'He was very lucky that this lady was sharing the same natural phenomenon but from the warmth and safety of her own home.

'He was not a local - a local wouldn't have attempted this. He was boundlessly naive.'

Police said the female hero has asked that her name is not revealed to the media.

The man in his 40s was treated for mild exposure after his ordeal.

He is planning a visit to the woman he owes his life to when he has recovered.

There's more at the link.

I hope the man follows through on his plans for a visit - and takes with him the largest, most delicious box of chocolates and the biggest magnum of champagne he can afford! She's surely earned them!

Peter