World affairs

Lifeguards are paid to save lives, right? You'd think so, but one young lad has lost his job for doing just that.

Tomas Lopez (21) was unceremoniously fired from his job after he saved a drowning man on a Florida beach on Monday. So what had he done wrong? Apparently the man he saved was not drowning off his section of beach!

Tomas was patrolling his area of Hallandale Beach when the incident occurred. Lopez told the local South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "It was a long run, but someone needed my help. I wasn't going to say no".

Luckily Tomas was able to rescue the man and he was taken to hospital and is still in intensive care. Unluckily for Tomas he was then fired for leaving his section of the beach unmanned.

He says he couldn't believe what was happening, but "they didn't tell me in a bad way. It was more like they were 'sorry, but rules are rules".

The farcical situation can probably be largely explained by the fact that the lifeguards are supplied by a private company.

The company released an official statement saying: "What he did was his own decision. He knew the company rules and did what he thought he needed to do."