Rescuers describe battle to save dying man from burn

● Victim got into difficulties after fall from bridge

Two passers-by have described their dramatic battle to save a dying man from a freezing burn.

They pulled one man to safety but were unable to save an unnamed 59-year-old, who got into difficulties when he fell from a bridge into icy waters near Errol, Perthshire.

He was floating face down in the stream for around 25 minutes as locals fought through the darkness to find him on Friday evening.

Despite efforts to resuscitate the victim at the water’s edge, he died in hospital later that night. It is thought he may have struck his head on a metal pipe or a stone as he fell.

Eddie Hunt and Stuart Mckay were first alerted by the screams of another man, Bryan Wrycza, 34, who had also gone into the stream. They pulled him up the embankment, where they said he was “turning purple”. He was revived with a warm change of clothes.

Mr Hunt, 23, who lives beside the burn, said his partner, Tori Hodgson, answered a call from her father outside, saying that someone had gone into the water.

“I went out and saw the bus sitting at the side of the road,” he said. “The driver and a few passengers, including a young child, were still on board. I knew right away something serious must have happened.”

The call centre worker joined his partner’s father, Mr Mckay, at the edge of the burn.

“We ran down to the water and there was one man trying to make his way out,” Mr Hunt said.

“He was struggling to get up the slope, so we gave him a hand. But the other man had floated downstream. He was nowhere to be seen, it was pitch black.” Mr Hunt and Mr Mckay were joined by at least one other man as they searched the stream.

“My partner ran to get a torch,” said Mr Hunt. “We were able to see a bit further along the burn and spotted the man lying a few feet ahead.

“We were able to drag him up on to the side, but by the time we got to him he must have been lying face under for about 25 minutes. We did our best, but we knew he wasn’t going to make it.”

Mr Mckay, 46, from Scone, said he had been heading home when he spotted the bus waiting at the side of the road.

The pair had stepped off a bus moments before landing in the waist-deep water. It is understood that one of the men had needed a toilet break and had asked the driver for a quick stop.