Former Regional Audio-visual Attaché of the French Embassy in Nigeria, Pierre Cherruau, has died from injuries sustained in a drowning accident at the Signal beach in Soulac-sur-Mer in the southwest of France.
Information made available to Qed.ng reveals that the 48-year-old, who was on a family vacation in the Gironde, was pronounced dead on Sunday morning, hours after the accident on Saturday.
He was trying to save his 10-year-old son who was drowning after going into the water.
Mr Cherruau and another family member jumped into the water to rescue the boy.
The child was rescued but his father suffered fatal injuries which resulted in cardiac arrest.
Cherruau was transported by helicopter to Bordeaux University Hospital where he was pronounced dead a few hours after arrival.
A journalist, writer and teacher, Cherruau was an avid supporter of Nollywood during his time in Nigeria.
Speaking with Qed.ng Founder, Olumide Iyanda, in a 2017 interview, Cherruau said “I am amazed at the way Nollywood has improved over the years.
“It is not perfect, but you see an improvement every year.
“There is technical improvement of course because there is more money in the movies, but you can also see more energy, more time spent on the script and so on. Nollywood is definitely going up.”
Cherruau taught French Language in Enugu State about 20 years ago and wrote a novel on stolen Nigerian artefacts.
Survived by a wife, two children, sister and mother, Cherruau would have been 49 on Monday, August 20, 2018.
