Policeman rescues woman from icy river

PC Smith at Stoke Bridge

A Suffolk policeman who jumped into the River Orwell to help a woman in the water, said he would do exactly the same thing again.

Police dog handler Neil Smith was treated in hospital after the incident at Stoke Bridge in Ipswich on Saturday.

PC Smith went back to work with a change of clothes after being given the all-clear - and a cup of tea - in hospital, and he told BBC Radio Suffolk he would definitely jump in again.

"Same again... same old cliche, but yes, same again," he said.

After a radio report that someone had either fallen or jumped into the river, he found the woman clinging to a ledge 20 feet below the dock wall and half-submerged in the river.

Dog lead

He threw down a rope line he normally uses for dogs, but said he then scrambled into the icy water to join her until further help could arrive.

"She flung her arms around me - just someone to hold on to I think - she was fairly weak and actually fainted at one point."

The policeman and the woman were ultimately rescued by the fire service.

"They flung down a lasso and hooked it round her first and hauled her up and then flung it back down to me and unceremoniously hauled me back up the wall and out", he said.