“Said” couldn’t swim. But when he realized that, in the sea, there were two children asking for help, she didn’t hesitate for a moment: he threw himself into the water to try to save them. And he lost his life.
His name was Rahhal Amarri, but everyone knew him as Said. He was 42 and born in Morocco, where he had a wife and a child. For 14 years he had been helping the managers of the “Lido dei Gabbiani”, in the Coppola Pinetamare village of Castel Volturno, for fourteen years, and he was becoming co-owner of the beach as the legal representative of a company that was about to acquire its business unit. At that point, he would bring his family to Italy.
“The children had arrived with their parents,” she told Republic Francesco Pio Russo, lifeguard of the beach, for whom Said was like a brother. “They could have been between six or seven years old. The sea was not rough, but here near the rocks there is always current, one had armrests, the other did not have them, but the sea easily carried them. The parents started screaming and they attracted the attention of Said who was at the cash desk, right in front of the entrance to the beach. When he saw the children in danger he ran like crazy. I was about twenty meters away ».
And again: «A little further on there was a gentleman who was fishing for cockles. Said dived into the water even though he couldn’t swim. He’s never bathed since he’s been here. I saw the scene and I jumped into the water too. And with the help of the other gentleman, who ran immediately, we were able to bring the children further ashore and deliver them to their father. But meanwhile Said was screaming. I jumped into the water to try to save him, he was in trouble. He was clinging to me and was pulling me underneath. I had to leave him. Then I went back into the water with the skate, but his body was already floating. The lord of the cockles and I brought it ashore, but when the emergency services of the 118 arrived, who tried everything to revive it, there was nothing to do. If only he had waited for me, perhaps all this would not have happened. I was behind him, a few meters away ».
In addition to the enormous pain for Said’s death, Francesco Pio Russo also feels great bitterness: «Nobody thanked Said for what he did. We have never seen the parents of the two children. They literally disappeared ».
Source: Vanity Fair
