Man (56) drowned who wanted to save dog from large pond: “Tragic accident” (Zulte)

A 56-year-old man who wanted to rescue his dog from a large pond in the Groeneweg drowned on Thursday afternoon. Fire brigade divers removed the victim from the water. He was resuscitated, but no further help could be obtained.

Just after 2 p.m., the fire brigade and the police received a report of a drowning person in a pond on the Groeneweg in Zulte. It concerned a 56-year-old man from Zulte who was visiting an acquaintance in the street with his dog.

At one point, the man’s dog floundered in a large pond in the acquaintance’s garden. He wanted to save the animal, but he couldn’t get back up. “The dog was still swimming in the water, but there was no trace of the man,” says the Deinze-Zulte-Lievegem police zone.

Fire brigade divers were eventually able to remove the man from the water. The emergency services tried to resuscitate him, but there was no further help.

Tragic accident

“It was very scary,” says a local resident. “At one point a lot of fire trucks, police and the mosquitoes passed by. At first I thought a fire had broken out. Only later did I learn that the incident happened in the pond.”

Mayor Simon Lagrange (Open Zulte) regrets the tragic accident. “We sympathize with the relatives of the victim.”