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WATCH | Four-year-old girl rescued after drifting out to sea on an inflatable unicorn

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Now that's one durable floaty! (Facebook/Giorgos Papaioannou)
Now that's one durable floaty! (Facebook/Giorgos Papaioannou)

A video showing a little girl rescued after drifting out to sea on a toy raft has stunned the internet.

The preschooler had been playing by a beach in Antirrio, a seaside town in Greece, when she was caught in strong sea currents, which pushed her 500 metres out to sea. 

By the time her parents realised what was happening she was too far away for either of them to save her. Authorities were then notified and a warning signal was sent out to nearby ships. 

Luckily, a ferry on route to the town picked up on the signal and managed to locate and rescue the child, who seemed unbothered by the incident. 

But according to captain Grigoris Karnesis, the man who who led the rescue, the child was not composed, but was in fact frozen in fear. 

Translated from Greek, he said: 

"I located it, made the appropriate manipulations, approached it and did the meditation. The little one was not cool, she was frozen from her fear because the current was very strong."

"I put the ship in such a position so as not to affect the small life buoy... We approached it slowly and we were able to catch the child."

Watch the incredible rescue in the video below: 

Compiled for Parent24 by Lesley-Anne Johannes. 

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