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Son of Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik rescued from Gold Coast surf Son of Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik rescued from Gold Coast surf
(about 5 hours later)
The eldest son of Denmark’s Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik has been rescued from the surf on the Gold Coast after being caught in a rip. Prince Christian of Denmark avoided being swept out to sea on Thursday after a timely rescue from Gold Coast lifeguard and surf champion Nick Malcolm.
Ten-year-old Prince Christian was pulled from the surf by lifeguard Nick Malcolm on Thursday at Mermaid beach and returned safely to his parents, the Courier Mail reported. The 10-year-old royal, holidaying in Australia with his parents Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik, was pulled from a fast-moving rip at Mermaid beach.
The royals, who are on a family holiday, were reportedly swimming between the flags. “We got him before it got too serious, but he wouldn’t have come back in,” Malcolm’s supervisor, lifeguard Stuart Keay, told the Courier Mail.
They returned to the beach on Friday to personally thank Malcolm for rescuing the young prince. Malcolm, who paddled out to save the young prince, was unaware of his identity until told by a bystander. “We didn’t have a clue,” Keay said.
Malcolm had kept a low profile since the incident, but his supervisor heaped praise on him, saying he had undoubtedly saved Christian’s life, the paper reported. Crown Prince Frederik reportedly thanked Malcolm by telephone for rescuing his son.
“We got him before it got too serious, but he wouldn’t have come back in,” Stuart Keay said. But his colleagues are making sure he doesn’t get a big head.
Hobart-born Mary met Frederik in Sydney in 2000. The couple have three younger children, Isabella and twins Vincent and Josephine. “He’s kept it pretty quiet,” fellow lifeguard Shane Pierce told the paper. “I’m sure we’ll give him plenty of stick now we know.”
Malcolm, who has declined to comment to media, has previously made headlines for his rescues.
In 2014 he rescued 68-year-old English tourist John Sherlock, who slipped underwater at Mermaid beach from exhaustion and stopped breathing.
Malcolm and Keay managed to save the man’s life after 30 minutes of CPR.
“The type of cardiac arrest he was in, he was gone,” Malcolm told the NZ Herald. “It was pretty intense. Lots of rib-breaking and lots of hard work.”
Queensland lifesavers performed 3,648 rescues in the 2014-2015 reporting year, with almost 650,000 “preventative actions” taken in the same period. More than 130,000 lives have been saved on Queensland beaches since statistics began to be recorded in 1930.
The Danish royals were reportedly swimming between the flags.