Magalluf.In the early hours of yesterday morning, two Guardia Civil officers came to the rescue of a 22-year-old British woman who had become trapped in a fishing net laden with bait hooks some 10 metres from the shore of Magalluf beach.
According to investigating sources, other tourists had heard the screams of Hannah Louise K. as they strolled along the beach.
Her ordeal in the sea had apparently lasted around half an hour. She had swum out from the beach and pausing to rest out of her depth, had clung onto a floating buoy without realising that is was the marker for a widespread nylon- string fishing net spiked with hooks. One of them cut into a finger on her right hand and she was unable to remove it when the hook became embedded.
The young woman began to feel frightened, but with every effort to distance herself from the net she became more tightly bound up in it.
In the dark, it had been difficult to ascertain just what had happened and Hannah began screaming for help.
The Guardia Civil were alerted to the fact that a woman was in difficulties on Magalluf beach and at first they believed that it was a case of a woman having been sexually assaulted.
A patrol unit nevertheless set out for the beach and quickly discovered that Hannah couldn't swim back to the beach because she was trapped.
The officers, fearing for the safety of the woman, jumped into the water, swam out to the buoy and cut Hannah free from the net but they could not disengage the hook which had pierced her finger.
Once back on dry land, Hannah was taken to a medical centre where she was freed from the hook and treated accordingly.
Meanwhile, the Guardia Civil opened an investigation into who had set up the fishing net laden with hooks by the marker buoy. It has been located very close to the wooden foot bridge off Magalluf beach.
During the daytime, anyone caught fishing here is sent off because of the danger to bathers but there is now evidence that fishermen are returning to the area under cover of darkness.