Three Suffer Cardiac Arrest in a Single Day... Safety Alarm Raised at 'Unsanctioned Beaches'

[Anchor]

Yesterday, on the 26th, three people were rescued in a state of cardiac arrest at a beach in Goseong, Gangwon Province, and rushed to the hospital all in one day. Because it was not an official beach, there were no lifeguards on duty, which inevitably delayed the response to the accidents.

Reporter Jo Jaegeun has the details.

[Reporter]

At a beach in Goseong, Gangwon Province, around 2:10 PM, five vacationers enjoying the water fell into danger.

Three of them managed to get out on their own. However, among the remaining two individuals in their 50s, one was rescued by safety personnel dispatched from a nearby beach about 500 meters away, and the other was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter, but both were already in cardiac arrest.

The beach where the accident occurred is located in front of a condominium operated by the Armed Forces Welfare Corps. It had operated as a beach until last year, but gave up its official beach operations this year.

Banners urging safety were hung, and rescue equipment was stationed on the beach, but these measures failed to prevent the accidents.

With no lifeguards stationed on-site, the response to the emergencies was inevitably delayed.

[Bae Sung-jin / Safety Team Leader, Hwajinpo Beach: (At the moment of the rescue) the person was already in a state of cardiac arrest. So we pulled them out and loaded them onto a jet ski, and when we came out, the 119 rescue squad happened to have arrived, and they performed CPR....]

Around 4:00 PM, at another beach in Goseong, a person in their 20s snorkeling was also transported to the hospital in a state of cardiac arrest.

This beach was also not designated as an official swimming beach.

[Lee Moo-yeol / Tourism Facilities Team Leader, Goseong County Office: (At designated beaches) we set swimming boundary lines and water safety personnel control swimmers so they do not go beyond those limits, allowing for immediate response in the event of a water accident or other emergencies....]

Over the past three summers, a total of 81 safety accidents occurred at unsanctioned beaches in Gangwon and Gyeongbuk provinces, resulting in 30 fatalities.

(Video by: Kim Dae-cheol | Footage provided by: Sokcho Coast Guard and Gangwon Fire Headquarters)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.