Hundreds of schoolchildren on a kayak excursion near Dinant were taken by surprise this Thursday afternoon when the flow of the Lesse river suddenly increased.
The emergency services were sent to the rescue en masse, but rescue workers in the Dinant area reassured the public that no one was in mortal danger.
Emergency services were called to the Houyet and Anseremme area early on Thursday afternoon. "At around 14:00, the local fire brigade was called out to children in difficulty on the Lesse. We didn't have a head count at the start of the operation, but it turned out that between 400 and 500 teenagers needed to be evacuated," captain of the Dinant fire brigade Patrice Liétard told RTL info.
"The youngsters were sent out onto the water while the water level was too high," said Mayor of Dinant Thierry Bodlet. "Everyone who went down the Lesse this morning says they should never have left. Some have hypothermia. A helicopter is flying over the Lesse to check for young people stuck in hard-to-reach places."
Some young people fell into the water and were rescued by walkers. Witnesses told RTBF that there was insufficient supervision provided given the high flow of water. Seven teenagers were taken to various hospitals in the region for hypothermia or anxiety attacks, but their lives are not in danger.
Credit: Belga
"We have stopped the kayaking tours and are now trying to help the people who are worried," said manager of kayaking company Dinant Evasion Olivier Pitance. The company is the only one to offer kayak trips down the Lesse. "Some people have fallen into the water, but everyone is wearing a life jacket, so no one is in mortal danger. However, there are about 600 people on the water, which is a big group to manage," he added.
Pitance explained that this situation was caused by "a sudden large flow of water" that no one had seen coming. "The Lesse rose by 1.5 metres in two hours, causing a veritable tidal wave. This is a natural phenomenon I have never experienced before," he said. The flow of the river, which was 12.73m³/sec at 06:00 on Thursday morning, reached 29.41m³/sec by 15:00.
Despite the large number of young people surprised by the force of the current, search operations ended around 16:30 and the evacuated students were greeted with thermal blankets. "There is no one left on the Lesse," confirmed the fire brigade to RTL info. They conducted a headcount of the teenagers "to ensure that no one is missing."
