Water hero! Our man in China saves girl in river
THIS is the moment a British diplomat leapt into action to save an unconscious student from drowning in a river.
Stephen Ellison, 61, spotted the woman face down in a fast-flowing current in China.
Not knowing whether she was still alive, he immediately jumped into the water and pulled her to safety.
Meanwhile, other bystanders stood and watched or merely filmed the action on their mobile phones until some threw him a lifebuoy as he neared the river bank.
Last night Mr Ellison, who is UK consul general in Chongqing, was being hailed a
‘She wasn’t breathing, we feared the worst’
hero. He had been walking by the river in a village outside the city on Saturday morning when the drama unfolded.
The woman, 24, slipped on rocks and fell into the deep water.
Footage showed her struggle in the treacherous current, disappear under a footbridge and emerge face down, apparently unconscious.
Mr Ellison, a strong swimmer who competes in triathlons, took off his shoes and dived in. He turned the student over, lifted her face clear of the water and swam to the steep, rocky bank.
‘She was unconscious, she was not breathing and for a short time we feared the worst,’ he told the BBC yesterday. ‘ But as we got back to the side, she started breathing again.’
He grabbed the lifebuoy attached to a rope that had been thrown towards him and bystanders pulled the woman to safety.
Mr Ellison swam round to shallower rocks and climbed out. He was given dry clothes and warm drinks by grateful villagers.
The student, who is from Wuhan and attends Chongqing University, was shaken by the experience and is recovering slowly. But she has invited him to dinner with her family next weekend. Footage of the rescue has been shared millions of times in China on social media. Mr Ellison was described as a hero, a role model and someone ‘worthy of admiration’.
Many users expressed surprise that such a ‘ big official’ would jump into the water.
There was also criticism of the other witnesses who stood by doing nothing to help.
One social media user said he was shocked that ‘so many people were watching, and not a single person rushed to the water themselves’. Such cases are common in China, where many are unwilling to get involved for fear of being charged with a crime by officials.
The diplomat was also described as ‘uncle’, a term of admiration almost never used by the Chinese to describe foreigners.
Mr Ellison, originally f rom Newcastle, is head of the British mission in Chongqing, where his role is primarily to support bilateral trade links between Britain and China – which are currently under threat from the row over democracy in Hong Kong.
The former engineer worked for three decades in various locations around Asia, Europe and the Middle East. A Mandarin speaker, he has lived and worked in China for nine years.
He joined the Department for International Trade at the British Embassy in Beijing in 2014.
He was the champion of his age group in the 2019 Beijing International Triathlon.