Crane requested

Car plunged into Möll: passers-by rescued Italian man

This car crashed off the main road into the Möll.(Bild: FF Heiligenblut)

The alarm was raised in Mölltal on Thursday evening: vehicle in the Möll, divers requested - this was the initially dramatic-sounding description of the fire department operation. However, the four occupants were rescued by passers-by, but some of them were seriously injured.

In Lassach in Mölltal, the car of an Italian (68) left the B 106 Grossglockner road, slid down an embankment and ended up in the river. Drivers of following cars were able to help the four occupants - two women (34 and 68) and another man (82) - out of the car.

"When we arrived at the scene of the accident, everyone was already out of the car," said Herbert Fresser, commander of the Mörtschach fire brigade, who was joined by colleagues from the Winklern and Heiligenblut fire brigades and, at times, from Rangersdorf. A towing company was called in to recover the badly damaged vehicle - using a crane.

An ARA and a Christophorus helicopter team were deployed to fly two injured people to hospitals in Lienz and Klagenfurt. The two others who were also injured were taken to hospital in Lienz by the ambulance service.

The cause of the accident was probably microsleep.

Simultaneous operation at forest fire
In the meantime, the Rangersdorf firefighters have returned to their other mission. "A forester saw a forest fire starting from the neighboring mountain. At an altitude of around 1900 meters. It would have taken us an hour and a half to get to the source of the fire. So the police helicopter flew out - to investigate the situation and put out the fire straight away. That's a great help," says Kurt Schober, the district fire brigade commander of Spittal. It is not yet clear how large the area on fire is and whether the cause is lightning.