Riverside residents were woken by ‘heartbreaking cries for help’ from a person in the Ouse last night.
Police, fire and ambulance crews were called to the river near Ouse Bridge at about 1.30am. The York Rescue Boat was also scrambled.
Three people were rescued from the water, two of whom had gone in to save the person calling for help.
Michael Neal, who lives by the river, witnessed the incident.
He said: “I was woken by a person – I think it was a woman – in distress in the river shouting for help.
“They were heartbreaking calls for what seemed an age.”
The emergency services were quickly on the scene. “Fire and police were trying to stop people jumping in to help,” Michael said.
He said the 999 crews were trying to get a rescue line to the person in the water when at least one person did jump in and swim over to them.
The person calling for help managed to grab the rescue line and Michael saw them pulled out of the water.
A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “At just after 1.30am this morning we responded to reports that a person was in the River Ouse near to Ouse Bridge.
“We alerted the fire service and the York Rescue Boat who deployed to the scene along with the ambulance service.
“Three people were rescued from the water, two of them were members of the public who entered to try and rescue the initial person.
“All three were taken to hospital as a precaution.”
A spokesperson for Yorkshire Ambulance Service said: “We received an emergency call just after 1.30am on Monday morning to report three people in the river near Ouse Bridge, York.
“Two ambulances and a team leader were dispatched to the incident and three patients were conveyed to York Hospital.”
