Rescuers agttempting to save an undernourished beluga whale which swam up the River Seine towards Paris before being blocked between two locks say they have little hope for its survival after the cetacean, apparently ill, continued to refuse food.
Officials are puzzled as to why an apparently underwheight beluga whale, a species normally found in cold Arctic waters, is swimming up the River Seine towards the French capital, while environmentalists ponder on how to guide the cetacean back out to sea.
Nathan Paulin, 27, thrilled crowds as he successfully crossed the River Seine from the Eiffel Tower, balancing himself on a 600-metre-long slackline at a height of 70 metres, saying afterwards that the feat 'wasn't easy' but that it 'was still beautiful'.
The waters of the River Seine that winds through Paris have been swollen by recent heavy rainfall, causing the closure of some riverside sites at the weekend and plans to evacuate others if the rise continues in the centre of the capital which in 2016 experienced flooding that left four people dead and 24 others injured.
The River Seine waters on Monday reached a peak in their rise of more than four metres, the highest since serious flooding in 2016, and which has caused the evacuation of about 1,500 people from their homes in the Greater Paris region and the closure of a busy commuter rail link through the capital.
Following heavy rainfall in northern France over recent weeks, the River Seine running through the middle of the French capital is expected to reach five metres above its average water level on Sunday evening, the highest level since June 2016, while about 650 people have been evacuated from their homes across the Paris region because of flooding.
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