A 23-YEAR-OLD musician clung onto a friend for dear life after a current surge in a German river knocked them both off their feet – but she was unable to keep him afloat.
North East Lincolnshire Coroner, Paul Kelly, praised Jade Lovely for attempting to save Christian Fagg, of Hart Street, Cleethorpes, when the bank of the River Rhine, collapsed and the current surged.
Christian was a weak swimmer but had been messing about in the water with Jade and another friend during a trip to Cologne for a music festival on August 5.
In a statement read to the inquest at Cleethorpes Town Hall, Jade said: "It was such a beautiful setting; the sun was beginning to set behind the shore."
She explained how she had asked a friend on the bank to take a photo of the three of them in the water.
"I remember we only had eight photos left on our camera and we agreed to make every one count," she said.
"That one certainly did."
The friends had been racing one another in the water when Jade was forced to stop because of cramp.
"I went to step onto the sand but I felt it give way," she said.
Jade saw her two friends being dragged into the water and, being a strong swimmer, made the "split-second" decision to go in after them.
"Christian had his arms around my neck and shoulders and was using me as his sole means of staying afloat," she said.
She tried to find the bottom of the river to propel them back up to the surface but Christian was panicking and unable to help her.
"It got to the point where I couldn't breathe anymore and I had to release his grip on me," said Jade.
She managed to scramble onto some nearby rocks where she began resuscitating their other friend, who had been rescued from the water by a passerby.
The same man dived back in to find Christian, but was unable to locate him.
Emergency services arrived soon afterwards and commenced a wider search.
Jade said: "It's all a haze of firefighters and flashing lights and the sound of sobbing drowning everything out.
"The search was called off about four hours later when it got too dark and I realised the chances of finding him were miniscule."
Thomas Drury, who had remained on the bank while his friends swum, told the inquest that Christian's family were too upset to attend the proceedings.
He said: "I remember hearing Jade shouting, which we thought was general fooling about, but then she kept it up and we started hearing cries for help."
Christian's body was eventually found two days later, more than six kilometres from the campsite, and he was identified from his dental records.
A post mortem examination indicated he had died as a result of drowning, but an exact cause could not be found.
Coroner Paul Kelly recorded a verdict that Christian died as the result of an accident.
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