Girlfriend raised the alarm

Search operation in the Inn: mystery surrounding missing girl

Water rescue, fire department and police were deployed.

(Bild: ZOOM Tirol)

A 15-year-old teenager up to her waist in water was rescued from the River Inn in Schwaz, Tyrol, on Thursday evening. The girl said that her friend of the same age had fallen into the river. A major search operation was then launched. On Friday, there was a big sigh of relief.

At 10.05 pm, the Schwaz fire department received an alarm from the Tyrol control center - "drowning accident". "In such cases, a special alarm plan comes into effect", informed head of operations Markus Kirchner from the Schwaz fire department.

The emergency services quickly found what they were looking for. "We discovered a girl standing in water up to her waist on the north side of the Inn, between the Barbara Bridge and the highway bridge," explained Kirchner. The emotionally distraught teenager said that her friend had fallen into the Inn.

We discovered a girl up to her waist in water on the north side of the Inn, between the Barbara Bridge and the highway bridge.

Einsatzleiter Markus Kirchner

Night-time search operation launched
While the ambulance took the 15-year-old girl to Schwaz hospital, a large night-time search operation was launched. In addition to the Schwaz fire department, the Florianis from Stans, Buch, Jenbach and Strass as well as the Kufstein district fire brigade with one and the Innsbruck professional fire department with two drones were also deployed.

Observation posts on bridges
The 50 or so firefighters were joined by 26 water rescuers from Schwaz/Achensee, Reith im Alpbachtal and Kramsach. Observation posts were positioned on all of the Inn bridges up to Strass, the banks were searched and boats were used to search the river for the missing local girl. Unfortunately, the search was unsuccessful. "We had to call it off at around 1 a.m.," says Markus Kirchner.

Big sigh of relief the day after
On Friday, everyone involved breathed a sigh of relief. As the police told the "Krone" newspaper in the early afternoon, the allegedly missing girl had been found unharmed at home.

But the ominous case still raises questions: Did the 15-year-old's friend, who had been taken from the Inn, give false information? If so, why? Or is there more to the story? According to the police, it is currently unclear whether the 15-year-old and the teenager who was rescued from the Inn had been traveling together at all, referring to the latter's state of confusion.