Cries saved woman from frozen river
A DOG walker who fell into a freezing river survived after a local heard her cries half a mile away.
The woman, in her 60s, fell down an 8ft drop into the River Irwell, in Bury.
A resident was closing her windows for bed when she heard a distant cry and rang 999, despite initially thinking it was a cat.
Firefighters fought the current to rescue the OAP – who had hypothermia and a broken ankle – at 11.30pm on Thursday.
Steve Wilcock, of Bury fire station, said the neighbour saved the life of the woman and her dog.
He said: “She heard a very faint cry for help. This woman wasn’t going to get out. She would have died.”
“It was just sheer luck and brute strength that we [got] her up the ladder.”