Mayor of Písek, Czech Republic personally thanks Romani community members Jan Kuča and Lukáš Bandy for rescuing a five-year-old girl from drowning in a river
The two young men who saved the life of a five-year-old girl who had fallen into a river two weeks ago were received on Thursday at the Písek town hall by Mayor Michal Čapek. He personally thanked them for their brave deed and expressed appreciation for their fast reactions.
News server Romea.cz was the first media outlet to report on the event, which happened on 2 July. “I would like to thank you not just on behalf of myself and the town, but also on behalf of the parents, for not hesitating and immediately jumping into the water for their little girl. You were in the right place at the right time and you behaved wonderfully. Thanks to your immediate reactions you prevented a great tragedy,” the mayor said when meeting with Kuča and Bandy at the town hall.
“We are very glad to be invited to the town hall, it’s very nice. We spent about 40 minutes with the mayor and told him our whole story and we toasted each other,” Bandy described the meeting to Romea.cz.
“The mayor’s response is a very nice gesture,” Kuča said, adding that the mayor was interested in what it is like to live in Písek as Romani people. The dramatic situation transpired on the Municipal Island in Písek on Sunday, 2 July at around 13:00.
The five-year-old girl was riding her bicycle when she and it flew directly into the Otava River. She began to drown immediately.
Fortunately, Bandy and Kuča were walking by and did not hesitate to jump into the river to rescue her. “We’d just planned to go for a beer because it was our day off. The five-year-old girl rode past us on her bike right then,” Bandy told news server Romea.cz 14 days ago about the dramatic event.
“She was riding downhill, and suddenly she sailed off of the path in front of the footbridge straight into the Otava. She immediately started making noise beneath the surface. Her parents were about 40 or 50 meters away from the place where it happened. We were just two meters away from her, fortunately. It was a matter of seconds,” said Bandy, a 28-year-old from Slovakia who has moved to the Czech Republic for work.
He immediately alerted his brother-in-law, Jan Kuča, who also did not hesitate to jump into the river to rescue the little girl. “I pulled her up after about three or four seconds, she was incredibly frightened. I’ll never forget her eyes full of fear,” Kuča, who is also 28 and a native of Písek, told news server Romea.cz
Her parents ran onto the scene, out of their minds with fear, but she was no longer endangered; after looking her over quickly, they repeatedly thanked her rescuers. The parents offered both gentlemen a financial reward for rescuing their child; both of them strenuously refused to accept it.
