Driver hailed for saving tourists from rip current at Louisiana beach: ‘I just locked in’

Jordan Matthew, who has no lifeguard training, rescued a young boy and two women from the dangerous current

A shuttle driver recently used his bare hands to rescue three tourists ensnared by a potentially deadly rip current off the southern Louisiana coast, actions which state officials hailed as “heroic”.

In an interview published on 15 June, Reliant Shuttle driver Jordan Matthew told Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana that he had just dropped off a group of tourists from Oklahoma at a beach on Grand Isle days earlier when one of them frantically flagged him down.