One Sunday afternoon in May 2021, waiter Paul Blachut, 24, was busy at work at the FLOSSLANDE restaurant in scenic Augsburg, Germany. From behind the bar, Blachut had a good view of the Lech river below, in which many people were cooling their feet. The water is very cold at this time of year, and it runs quickly.
Among those enjoying the cooling water were a mother and her two teenage daughters. They were playing with an inflatable tube (充气轮胎) by the riverbank, when suddenly the girls lost their footing and fell into the river. It all happened so fast. The girls caught the tube, which their mother was sitting in, pulling her into the river, too. Now all three were being carried away, shouting, "Help! Help!"
Blachut looked up from his busy work when he heard the shouts. Then he found the three women not far away, flapping their arms, trying to catch anything. Without thinking, Blachut ran down to the river and jumped into the cold water. All he wanted to do was rescue (营救) them.
As Blachut got closer to them, he could tell that the mother seemed to be in the most trouble; her head was now out of sight. At once, Blachut went down under the mother, pushing her upward and towards the bank. Then an onlooker (旁观者) got close to grab the woman's hand, pulling her to the land.
Blachut knew he needed to rescue the two daughters, who were now further down the river. He jumped into the water again and succeeded in getting one out in the same way he did her mother, while the other was saved by another onlooker.
Several onlookers expressed their admiration for Blachut following the accident. "The whole rescue only took two or three minutes," he said, adding that it was not a big deal. Actually, it was a job very well done.
