Video: Pregnant woman zip-lines to safety with her family in Kerala floods
Valiant rescuers: Heavily pregnant woman zip-lines to safer ground
A video of a pregnant woman zip-lining to a safer ground has gone viral on social media in India. Deadly floods have inundated numerous districts of three southern states, leaving more than 100 people dead.
Personnel of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Indian Navy took the herculian task of rescuing people who faced the threat of rising floodwaters.
Besides prodding residents to evacuate their homes, they also faced an unlikely challenge: to move a heavily-pregnant woman to safety, across a torrent of floodwaters.
Several people gathered at Agali panchayat in Attappadi, Palakkad where the family lived, and where rescuers put up a makeshift zip-line across the Bhavani River in Kerala.
The local media reported that Murugesh, the father of the two year old child, was initially reluctant to zip-line across the river with his child. He needed a good amount of convincing to get clipped to the zip-line.
A rescue personnel who is an expert swimmer, tried to convince the father, saying he would take the child across to the other side. But Murugesh won't budge. Finally, he relented and decided to cooperate.
On Twitter posts, Murugesh is seen suspended from the line with his child tightly fastened to his chest with a cloth. In a slow and steady move, the father and child are pulled to safety to the other side where a medical team awaits.
The child’s grandparents, who were rescued before them, quickly attended to their grand-child. According to Manorama News, Murugesh was on rest following surgery.
Meanwhile, the child’s heavily pregnant mother, Lavanya, was watching all this from the verandah of her house. The team soon reached out to her.
They strapped her on with a harness gear. When ready, she was securely mounted on the line and her journey began.
In a tweet posted by ANI, she is seen clinging to the rope. The team on the other side is seen pulling her through the zip-line. Finally, after almost eight minutes, she reached the other side and relieved from the straps.
Indian Army personnel also rescued a new born baby from Wayanad.
According to latest numbers, over 160,000, people including senior citizens and children, had been rescued in the floody fury. The state of Kerala had been the hardest hit.