Ancona, 15 June 2024 – From fun to terror. And then again from terror to life. Life that continues thanks to a heroic rescue into the sea, yesterday afternoon, by two young people from Torretta who, seeing a small Chinese family at risk of drowning, were the first to dive in and rescue two girls and a boy who had ventured out to sea for one of the first seasonal swims.
They didn’t think twice about it, the 25-year-old Nicolas Fiorillo and the 24 year old Lorenzo Papili. At the first shouts of “Help, help, help”, followed by “aiuto” in Italian, they got up from under the umbrella to run towards the shore. Then the immersion in the waves of a sea which, although flat and apparently mild, can always be found in the stretch in front of the free beach of Torrette insidiousif the heights, currents and dangers are not known.
Two arms to the corridor between the cliffs, about forty meters from the shoreline. Where those came from desperate screams of a 25-year-old woman of Asian origin. With her also i his little brothers, a small child equipped with armrests and a little girl between 10 and 12 years. It was the latter, in particular, who was most in difficulty.
On the ground, in the following minutes, they will hint that the current had pushed them beyond the safe point, the one where you touch. Shortly before, however, it was when the 12-year-old ended up with her head under water that panic began. She would have started to ingest liquid, the very young one. And she would have lost control, risking sinking. And a half day of carefree, she came this close to turning into a tragedy.
If it had not been, however, for the promptness and the courage of Nicolas Fiorillo and Lorenzo Papili who understood the situation and did not remain indifferent. “When we heard the screams – explains Nicolas to Carlino – I immediately jumped into the water and tried to reach those three people. They had arrived close to the cliffs, the sea had carried them offshore and they could no longer touch. They were terrified. The older one was screaming and crying, even the little one was very scared. The 12-year-old, however, was clearly in trouble. I put her with her head out of the water and put the big one and the little one on her shoulders, trying to swim towards a point where she touched each other”.
And there it was nearby Lorenzowhich he in turn took the 12 year old in his arms and says: “I accompanied her to the shore, she was coughing and vomiting. She was very shaken and tested”. But live. So much so that, when the beach returned to a normal situation, the Chinese family (in addition to the three there was also another younger sister who was not in the water) approached the position of the two young people from the neighborhood, precisely for thank his guardian angels: “You saved my life”, the meaning of the words spoken by the teenager.
Which, in a touching photo destined to soon go viral, has hugged Nicolas and Lorenzo. A warm hug for allowing her to look forward.
“But don’t call us heroes – conclude the two turret men –. We did what everyone would have done.” With one detail: without talking, without wasting time, they acted. Lucid and fast, precise and decisive. So well done guys, for being able to transform an afternoon that was taking on the contours of drama, into an exciting story of altruism and courage. To write and tell.
