Dramatic footage shows hero police officer dive into icy canal to rescue woman

This is the dramatic moment a hero police officer jumped into a freezing canal to rescue a drowning woman who had jumped from a bridge.

Body-cam footage shows the brave officer throwing off his jacket before diving into the icy water and pulling the woman to safety.

The West Midlands Police officer, who wants to stay anonymous, can be heard on the footage telling the woman: “Good girl, come on.”

After the brave rescue, the 39-year-old officer apparently headed home for a shower and to grab his spare uniform – and was back on duty just three hours later to continue his shift.

Police were called to a leisure complex in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton, just before 7.30am on Thursday to reports that a woman had fallen 15ft into the water.

The officer, who has worked for the force for 12 years,, said: “The canal is pretty deep and wide at the point she’d entered the water – certainly too deep to stand.

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He said: “The woman wasn’t responding to our commands to swim to the side and, with her clothes heavy with water, I could see she was being dragged under.

“I knew someone had to act soon so I jumped in to get her.”

“Cold would be an understatement,” he added. “It was absolutely freezing – but thankfully I was only in there for a matter of seconds. I wouldn’t have fancied spending any longer in there.

“It was our first call for service of the day – an interesting way to start my shift – and I was back on patrol by about 11am having had a shower.

“I’m pretty sure I still smell of pond water though.”

West Midlands Police Force Incident Manager, Chief Inspector Dave Keen, praised the officer for his heroics.

He added: “There’s always the danger of getting into difficulty yourself or going into shock when jumping into very cold water.

“But the officer has bravely acted on instinct, realising the woman was in trouble and in fearing she could drown.

“As a police officer on a response unit you never know what you’re going to encounter when you start your shift.

“They are the front line, reacting to 999 calls for service to help people in immediate need and to combat crime.

“This is a fantastic piece of work from the officer – he may well have saved a life this morning.”