A young woman was taken to hospital suffering from hypothermia after being pulled from the freezing waters of the River Severn in Shrewsbury.

She was rescued near St Mary’s Water Lane early yesterday.

Emergency crews were called to a footpath where the woman, in her 20s, had been pulled from the water.

Witnesses claimed she had been heard threatening to jump in the water as she argued with a man.

Mary and Stephen De Saulles were first on the scene. Mr De Saulles helped lift the woman to safety. He said: “It was about 2am and I heard shouting and then a big splash. I ran down to the river and by the time I got there the woman was still in six inches of water.

“Another woman who said she had seen them arguing ran back down and said she had heard her threatening to go in the water but did not think she would do it.

“The woman’s boyfriend had got in up to his ankles and he called an ambulance. He and I then carried her up the steps. She was semi-conscious but breathing. Then I got some sleeping bags to put on her and the police and paramedics arrived.”

Shropshire Ambulance Service said crews treated a woman in her 20s for hypothermia before taking her to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital for further treatment.

Meanwhile, firefighters spent the weekend battling flooding after last week’s heavy snow thawed.

They helped pump water from Shrewsbury Town’s Gay Meadow from 11.30am to 1pm on Saturday and from a house in Broxtons Wood, Westbury, at 6.29am on Saturday.