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A kangaroo that waded too deep into the sea in Australia was saved from certain death when two police officers jumped in just in time to pull it back to shore.

The marsupial got caught in the waves at the Safety Beach on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, on Saturday. Sergeants Christopher Russo and Kirby Tonkin, who were present at the scene, leapt into the water and carried the unconscious kangaroo to shore to perform Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation. A video shot by bystanders was shared by news networks.

“He had less than a minute…he went under and as he came up you could see foam coming out of his nose. He was drowning,” Sergeant Russo told BBC. “I grabbed his tail and Kirby cradled his head and dragged him onto the beach and cleared his lungs to get the water out of him.”

He added, “Every life is worth saving and we just did what we could.”

When they could finally hear a heartbeat, the kangaroo was taken to the local police station to recover. After a dose of antibiotics administered by a specialist, he was released back into the wild on Sunday.