Cape Town - A young girl is in hospital after she managed to save her 6-year-old sister from drowning in the surf at Richards Bay on Saturday morning.
Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha in a statement said the 12-year-old heroic girl was in a serious but stable condition.
"Reports indicate that [the] two girls… were on a sand bank at Pelican Island. [Their] dad had gone to surf and the two children made their way back to the beach," he said.
"The little child disappeared under the water as they tried to cross a trough and got into difficulty."
Botha said the older sister dived into the water and pushed her sister to the surface, "only coming up herself when she needed to breathe".
The father noticed this and raced to their assistance. "When he got to them, he pulled the youngest child onto the surfboard, but when he pulled the other child out he found that she had stopped breathing."
As medics approached, the girl gave a cough, brought up water and started breathing on her own, Botha said.
The child was treated by paramedics on the scene before being taken hospital.