In the summer of 1960, a teenage boy surfaced from an apnea dive in the Save river at Lévignac, west of Toulouse, clutching a rifle and shouting to his friends to come see what he had found. More than sixty years later, nobody knows where the weapons came from.
Jean-Paul, a witness to the scene, recalled the day with striking precision. He said there were around ten boys, aged between 13 and 15, who swam at the village weir almost every day during the summer holidays.
Among them was a teenager from Menville, a strong swimmer and keen free-diver who regularly explored the deepest section of the millpond. On that day he surfaced on the bank and, according to Jean-Paul, announced there were crates of weapons down below. Each dive brought up another firearm.
Gendarmes drain part of the weir
News spread quickly through the village. The mayor immediately banned swimming and ordered the weapons surrendered to the authorities. Gendarmes arrived with professional divers and, using the mill’s feeder canal and sluice gates, drained part of the weir, allowing them to recover several crates containing, according to witnesses, rifles and ammunition.
An investigation was then conducted in neighbouring communes in search of clandestine networks. Several residents still recall a major operation by the authorities that lasted several days across surrounding villages.
No conclusion was ever reached. With no accessible archives, the origin of the weapons remains unknown. The former young swimmers of Lévignac never forgot the discovery, and for a time returned to probe the riverbed, convinced that another cache might still lie hidden there.
