Vote for song
Merge 104.8 | 21 July 2020
As Sunday morning [July 19] dawned with rain in Oman’s southern governorate of Dhofar, Mohammed Amir Al Mashani was on his way to the office with no idea about what he was about to get himself into.
As the young man reached Al Mamora bridge in the Wilayat of Taqah, Al Mashani saw a fleet of cars stopped around the flyover which was flooded with rainwater.
Al Mashani left his car to inspect what was going on when he saw a half-sunken vehicle below the bridge.
“People told me that a person has been stuck in the sinking car for more than half an hour,” he told Merge 104.8’s sister station Al Wisal.
“Without thinking, I jumped in the water and swam for 50 metres to reach the car. I could only see part of its back bumper,” he narrated.
When Al Mashani reached the car, he said he heard a noise as though the person trapped inside was hitting the rear window. “This helped me locate him. People from over the bridge threw me some stones so I can use them to break the windows,” he explained, adding that water covered more than three-fourths of the car and the man was close to suffocating.
Al Mashani used a rock found inside the open trunk to crack the glass. “I then used my hand to smash it and extract the man. I asked him if he was alone in the car and he said yes. He could not swim,” he said. Al Mashani then secured a place on top of the car’s exposed bumper for the man to sit until rescue teams arrived.
Shortly after, teams from the Public Authority For Civil Defence and Ambulance arrived and, with the help of people nearby, rescued the two men.
“It was all thanks to God,” Al Mashani said “I did not have second thoughts about jumping into the flooded water. It was dangerous, as the car was far from land, but I am a good swimmer.”
Al Mashani sustained minor injuries to his hand due to the shattered glass and was transferred to Taqah Hospital.
