Panto stars save elderly woman from drowning

PANTOMIME stars in full costume helped to save a 72-year-old woman from drowning in a bitterly cold river after hearing her cries for help.

The shouts drifted in through an open window at the theatre where the cast and crew were rehearsing for Jack and the Beanstalk.

They ran out and threw a rope – normally used to tie Daisy the cow in the show – for the woman to hold on to as she struggled in the water.

Police then jumped into the Usk at Newport in south- east Wales and pulled her to safety.

Costume head Lois Mordecai said: ‘The river was going so fast that she started by the dressing room and was by the bridge by the time the police arrived. It’s lucky the window was open or she would have passed us and no one would have heard her.’

Police said the woman, from Newport, had been in the water for at least 15 minutes but it was not clear how she got there. She was treated in hospital for hypothermia. Jack and the Beanstalk opens at Newport’s Riverfront theatre tomorrow.