FIREMEN rescued a woman trapped in stream with a broken ankle after she fell from a bridge at Leigh.

The woman was taking a short cut across waste ground near Atherleigh Way when she slipped.

She had been walking with her husband who rushed to a nearby phone box to raise the alarm.

When firemen arrived they found her almost thigh-deep in the stream.

Using ladders and rescue lines they pulled her to the safety of the bank then carried her half a mile to a waiting ambulance. She received first aid from paramedics before being taken to hospital in Wigan.

The ambulance had been unable to get nearer to the stream because of the rough and uneven ground.

Previous news story

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.