Two auxiliary officers in Xinjiang die while rescuing children from floodwaters

Two auxiliary police officers in Kuqa, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, lost their lives on Sunday while rescuing two children who had fallen into floodwaters, the local public security bureau said Monday night.

According to its announcement, at around 8:40 pm on Sunday, the Restan Street police station under Kuqa's public security bureau received an emergency call reporting that two children had been swept into the Kuqa River and needed to be intercepted downstream of the Tuanjie Bridge.

Auxiliary officers Pahardin Kadir and Maulanjan Mamat and several of their colleagues, who were all on patrol nearby, immediately followed the riverbank to track the children's movements.

The Tuanjie Bridge spans about 80 meters. Normally, the river is 15 to 25 meters wide, but floodwaters had swelled across the entire river valley with a dangerously fast current. When the officers arrived, the children were stranded on a shoal in the middle of the river, with a second surge of floodwater looming.

Pahardin Kadir, Maulanjan Mamat, and two fellow officers then jumped in to rescue them. However, the torrent was so fierce that, even after they managed to grab hold of the children, they quickly became exhausted and were swept into a vortex by the second surge.

Reinforcements repeatedly threw life rings and rescue ropes from the shore, but the current was too strong.

After 10 minutes, one officer and the first child were pulled ashore downstream with joint efforts from police and locals. Sixteen minutes later, a second officer and the other child were rescued near Qiongsayi Bridge, about seven kilometers downstream from the Tuanjie Bridge.

However, when Pahardin Kadir and Maulanjan Mamat were found, they had already lost their lives.

Maulanjan Mamat was head of the police station at the Prince Mansion of Kuqa under the Restan Street station. He had received 26 banners of gratitude over his eight years of service.

Pahardin Kadir, 22, had been on the force for only one month. During the rescue, when asked who could swim, he stepped forward without hesitation. When backup officers tried to pull him to safety, he requested that they care for the others first, fulfilling his solemn oath as a police officer through his final act, the announcement from the local security bureau said.