Woman rescued by firefighters from the canal at Wigan Pier

Firefighters from Wigan station were among the first to be on the scene at 2.30am today (Saturday November 11) to find the distressed 28-year-old chest-high in water but two more pumps, the water incident unit and technical rescue unit were also summoned along with an ambulance and police.

However, after two firefighters got into the canal they were able to lift the soaking and freezing woman out without further assistance.

Crew manager Bryan Stewart said: “A lot of fire service vehicles were mobilised but the incident was over very quickly once we had located the lady and got her out so the incident was over by the time they arrived.

"We got a call from her uncle who was at the scene saying she was in the water. Initially we thought she was near Seven Stars bridge but then we could see it was by the old Orwell pub.

"Once we got there the incident was wrapped up in a flash.

"The lady was intoxicated, soaked through and cold.

"We don’t know how she got into the water in the first place.

"When we left the scene she was being checked out in the back of an ambulance and after that she was taken to hospital.”