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Schoolgirl's backpack proves a lifesaver in icy water

The Local Austria
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Schoolgirl's backpack proves a lifesaver in icy water
File photo: Depositphotos"

A nine-year-old girl who fell in a frozen pond when the ice she was walking on cracked was saved from drowning by her own school bag.

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The schoolgirl, from Vorarlberg in the west of Austria, was walking on the frozen bathing pond with a friend when the ice broke.

A passerby saw the children playing on the ice and called the police as he was worried that the ice was too thin.

By the time the police arrived it was already too late and they had to run around the pond - a former quarry - to get to the spot where the girl had fallen in. The ice was so thin that two of the officers also fell into the icy water as they tried to pull her out. They too had to be rescued with the help of an inflatable buoy.

Luckily the girl’s backpack had inflated and stayed on the surface of the water, helping to keep her afloat too.

A huge team of police officers, firemen, and lifeguards were called to the pond, as well as an emergency helicopter.

The girl was taken to hospital with hypothermia, along with one of the officers who had also fallen in.

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