Bride-to-be tries to save drowning man while at wedding photoshoot

A bride-to-be has won the admiration of netizens in China after she was photographed and filmed rushing to try and save a man who had drowned while she was at her own wedding photo shoot.

The woman, identified as Gao Yuanyuan, works as a nurse. She was taking her wedding photos at a scenic beach in Dalian, China in the morning of Monday, Sep 21.

While she was there, a man who had suffered a sudden heart attack while swimming in the ocean was carried up onto the beach

Ms Gao, still in her wedding attire, immediately rushed to his side and started administering cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The man had already stopped breathing when he was pulled ashore, Chinese news portal NetEase reported.

She tried to revive the man for 20 minutes before paramedics arrived, but her efforts were ultimately in vain as neither she nor the paramedics were able to save him, English-language tabloid website Shanghaiist reported.

However, her heroic efforts have won widespread praise and admiration from netizens, who created the hashtag "Dalian's Most Beautiful Bride" which was trending on Chinese social network Weibo with over 140,000 mentions.

seanyap@sph.com.sg