Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

This is the heroic dad who died after he jumped into a pond to save his drowning 9-year-old daughter despite not being able to swim.

Other people nearby were able to rescue the child, but the man’s body could only be pulled dead from the bottom of the five-metre-deep (16-foot-deep) pond.

The tragic incident took place in the town of Tornesch, in the district of Pinneberg, in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein when the dad and the young girl were visiting the Koesterkuhle fishing pond.

But the young girl slipped and fell 3 metres (10 feet) down a steep bank and into the water on Thursday evening (23rd July).

Neither the 61-year-old dad nor the girl, both unnamed in reports, were able to swim but the father did not hesitate for a second, jumping into the water himself in a bid to save his drowning daughter.

He repeatedly went under while passersby pulled the young girl from the water.

Rescuers were alerted and came to the scene, and were eventually able to find the man’s body at the bottom of the pond a little while later, according to the Hamburg public radio and television broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR)

The 61-year-old was initially revived, but he died the following day in hospital.

Meanwhile, police confirmed that the father was not a swimmer and the daughter cannot swim either.

According to Mayor Sabine Kaehlert, the nine-year-old had run after an animal.

A police spokesperson said that the child is doing well considering the circumstances.

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